


Lights for a dying Star

by FujiDawn



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Accidental Time Travel, Developing Friendships, F/M, Family Feels, Kid!Loki-Fic, Mum!Pep, Not compliant with Cap2 or Guardians, Science Bros
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-05
Updated: 2014-08-08
Packaged: 2018-02-11 21:35:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 22,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2084025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FujiDawn/pseuds/FujiDawn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>We start off shortly after the speech Odin gave his two sons about the war against the Frost Giants, and a young Loki who is too impatient to really learn how his magic acts when forced. He wakes up alone and on a strange Realm with stranger people, Heimdall doesn't react.<br/>Wandering off, he accidentally stumbles across Stark Tower.</p><p>...it's really better than the summary promises...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Stranded

**Author's Note:**

> This ghosted around in my head for AGES.  
> I finally had the time to write it, and I love it. I hope you love it as well.

He knew he had done something wrong the moment the seiðr sparked violently in him, a warning thud that was so genuinely different from the soft power he usually could summon.  
Perhaps he should have heeded his mother's words to let the teleportation rest for the time being, until he had a better grasp of the magic in his body.  
It was too late now, though.  
Loki was blinded in a bright flash of light, and there was a painful tugging in his stomach that lurched him forward an onto his knees, his breath knocked out of him so he could not even cry for help.  
Then, darkness swallowed him.

 

.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.

 

The first thing he did when he felt himself waking up was wincing. He was sore all over, his belly felt as if someone had punched him, and his head hurt, probably from the strain of using too powerful and strong magic, magic he was not used to yet.  
Blinking brought pain with it, too, as he was greeted with warm rays of the sun.  
No – a sun.  
It was not the clear, cosmic sky he usually gazed upon. This one was cerulean, shielding the universe behind with a thick atmosphere that bent the light and swallowed any glimpse into the beautiful cluster of stars Asgard was graced with.  
Where was he? Was this Vanaheimr? Had the spell taken him across the Realms?  
Norns, Mother and Father would be furious.  
Scrambling to his feet, the boy noticed the strange, high buildings in front of him. He had awoken in a patch of grass, surrounded by trees and a lake, but all around it was encased by houses high as mountains, and he could hear a distant noise, certainly louder than anything he had heard before, and so very unknown to him.  
And by Yggdrasil, the air reeked. Loki scrunched up his face when the smell of oil and burnt substances reached his nose, overlaying the faint trace of flowers and greens that were so much closer.  
Instantly, the young Prince felt lost even more than before. Here was nothing familiar, nothing known, nothing homely, and he had not the faintest clue as to how he should get back to Asgard and his family.  
He should definitely have heeded his mother's words.  
“Heimdall!”, he said, curiously glancing up to the sky.  
Nothing. That was odd.  
“Heimdall? Are you there?”  
Still no reaction.  
Loki paled. What if his parents had seen him trying that spell and were now angry at him? What if they wanted to teach him a lesson? All alone on a foreign Realm with strange, grey buildings and steel contraptions that moved faster than any horse, faster than even Sleipnir?  
“Heimdall! Please, I'm sorry! Let me go home!”  
It was futile. His words did not reach the All-Seeing.  
Suddenly feeling very small, Loki turned around and searched for a person to speak to, someone to ask where he was and how to get back.  
Ruling out some strange people with strings sticking out of their ears, running past him, he finally chose a woman who could have been his Mother's age, shyly approaching her.  
“Excuse me, would you tell me where we are?”  
The soft smile vanished and she frowned before answering, and Loki knew exactly why her face had contorted – he could not understand a single word.  
He definitely was on a different Realm.  
“Pardon me.”, he mumbled, gnawing at his lips, turning around and walking away.  
He was in serious trouble.  
He tried asking three other people of different ages and looks, but neither could understand him, just as little as he could understand them in return, growing more frustrated the more people he found that were not speaking his language.  
And he had not even begun learning the Allspeak – damn his pride and eagerness to learn it himself instead of letting a spell do the work for him. He knew not how to cast the spell.  
Loki wanted to cry, feeling even smaller than before.  
Unknown and lost, not able to contact his parents, not able to speak his troubles.  
Trying with all his might to hold back the tears, he straightened, shifting his weight to produce a stance worthy of a Prince of Asgard, and walked away from the park.  
Where to, he did not know, but he would surely not stay and make himself more miserable.  
He was Loki of Asgard – he would find a way.

 

.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.

 

Tony Stark was sitting in front of his TV, a cold beer in his hands while watching the footage of Thor battling his way through Greenwich and cheering him on.  
“Go get the bastard, Point Break!”, he said, wincing in sympathy when the god was thrown back once more.  
Gods, he itched for a fight himself.  
But with the whole Extremis-fiasco half a year earlier, he destroying his suits, fixing Pepper, and himself? No way he would be allowed.  
He'd thought it would help him, at first.  
He'd been wrong.  
Tony had never felt so useless in all his life before.  
“You're moping again, aren't you?”  
Speaking of the Devil.  
“Course not, Pep. I'm perfectly fine sitting on my ass watching Thor beat the shit out of some other alien conqueror. Do they breed them like that on Asgard? What do you think?”  
“Tony...”, she sighed, before kicking off her heels and letting herself fall besides the engineer. He pouted.  
She groaned.  
“Go! Build another one of these death-attracting suits, but heavens above stop sulking already!”  
Tony did not move a single muscle and only stared at her, mouth agape.  
“No, you're not so drunk that you imagine this. Go. You've become a positive hermit these last months, and while I like the peace around here without having to fear for your life on a daily basis, I really liked you better while engrossed in building one of the suits.”, she explained, rubbing her forehead.  
“Just please promise me you'll be a bit more careful as of now.”, she whined.  
She did not need to ask a second time. With a quick kiss, a huskily exhaled “Damn, Peps, you're the best!” and a bright smirk he hushed into the elevator, and before the doors could close, he was already rattling off lists of items and objects he would need to Jarvis.  
Pepper sank down further into the couch, contemplating what evil deed she had done in her first life to be punished like that now.  
It grew worse when she was alerted to the ruckus in the Lobby.

 

“What is going on?”  
“There seems to be a child without supervision in the Hall. The authorities are on their way already, and I took the liberty to engage an interpreter, as the boy seems to speak an unknown language.”  
“Thank you, Jarvis.”  
The child was no older than seven. Eight, maybe. And despite the calm surface he sported, Pepper could see the tension in his small body, the fear in his eyes.  
“Hey there, Sweetie.”, she said in his direction, crouching down so she would be not as tall and intimidating, hoping that her smile would perhaps translate the message.  
“Ek mælat yðvarr mál æva.”  
“I am sorry, I can't understand you.”  
He frowned. Before Pepper could try again, someone steered the kid away from her and to a woman – possibly of the child protective service, the way she clutched a stack of papers to her chest.  
“What is a boy doing here, all alone?”, the CEO finally asked one of her employees.  
“No idea, Miss Potts. But I know I'd be bawling as soon as I'd know to be alone.”  
“Yeah, he's eerily quiet.”  
The boy was led outside.  
He glanced back at her.  
Pep smiled and waved.

 

.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.

 

It was frustrating.  
No one could understand him. He could not understand them.  
Still they tried to speak with him constantly, as if he'd be miraculously be able to make sense of their phonics. They even gave him pen and paper (and what a strange thing this pen was – he was used to graphite and ink, and this was some kind of ink, but thicker, sticking in a small, clear tube like aspic).  
Loki had sighed, had written his name in the only way he knew – runes – and underneath 'not that you would be able to read it, blundering oafs' just for good measure and to blow off some steam.  
The men had pursed their lips in disappointment.  
When he had sat for hours in a small, cramped room, a desk full of papers in the middle, a small table where he was seated at, a woman came in, books in hand, and sat down on the other side.  
“I.”, she said and pointed towards her. Ah. Someone intelligent for a change.  
“Ek.”, Loki said and repeated the gesture, adding “þú.” while pointing at her.  
She grinned.  
“You.”  
He tested the words on his tongue, rather relieved when he managed to speak them without flaws – it seemed the foreign language was phonetically related with his own.  
How strange.  
“I am Cora.”, the woman said. “I. Cora.”  
Oh, Loki had understood the first time. He was rather good with languages.  
“I am Loki.”, he gave back, noticing her flinch back minutely.  
Narrowing his eyes, the child shifted his body into a more defensive stance. “Do you know me?”, he asked, knowing she would not understand. “Where am I? I need to get back home, back to Asgard.”  
Her smile grew sad. Pity shone in her eyes, and Loki hated it. He did not need pity.  
“Poor thing, you're probably distraught, hm?”  
He wanted to scream and set something on fire when she, too, started to speak like he was some toddler in need of coddling.  
But no – he had to reign himself in. Using magic would be the worst thing he could do at the moment. On the one hand because it was the only advantage he had right now, in case he needed to defend himself, on the other because it was the most cowardly and dishonourable thing to do while in a foreign land, under a foreign ruler.  
He had to represent Asgard, his Realm, his Kingdom, his King – showing his magic would make a very bad impression of the Realm Eternal.  
He was asked questions again. Mouth set in a firm line, he did not answer. Why? He could neither understand nor answer so that he would be understood.  
Instead, he used the time to concentrate on the speaking patterns, to analyse the language to the best of his abilities, and to perhaps translate some of the words so he could try and start to learn.  
In the evening, he could understand the basics of the conversations around him – not nearly enough, but a good start to let it grow.  
A middle aged man came and smiled at him, trying to lull him into a sense of security, but Loki knew exactly not to trust anyone. He played his part, though, answering in short, one-worded phrases that someone had tried to teach him.  
At least he had a roof to sleep under and a meal. His parents would be proud of him when he returned.  
When.  
It burned.

 

There were two men waiting for him in the same stuffed room as the day before.  
One spoke words so familiar it made Loki rash and careless, answering with a quick tongue before he could hold himself back.  
The man blinked in confusion.  
“I do not understand you.”, he said.  
Loki wanted to cry.  
“Why? Your words are the same!”, he returned.  
Turning his head, the man muttered a disbelieving 'I am not sure, but this could be Old Norse. It's a language long dead, and I've never heard it been spoken fluently. Call Gunnar.”  
Whoever this Gunnar was, he took his time to arrive.  
The boy had been given a children's book, in the meantime. He had sneered at it at first, but grudgingly accepted it as a way to learn, pointing to letters and expecting the adults to help him.  
When Gunnar arrived, he had read the damned thing six times, had memorized the letters, scoffed at the caterpillar that gorged itself and begged the Fates to bring him home.  
“Hello.”, he heard, and answered accordingly.  
“Your name is?”  
“Loki. My name is Loki.”  
It grew boring to repeat it.  
“Where are you from?”, he was asked, once in a crude form of his own language, once in that new one.  
“I am of Asgard.”  
Murmuring, the three adults stuck their heads together, annoying Loki to no end. He hated people who talked about him without being noble enough to do it to his face.  
“You are Loki of Asgard.”  
“Yes.”  
Were these oafs retarded?  
“You?”  
“Yes.”  
Wait.  
Blinking, Loki scanned their faces for any chance of recognition and found none. But perhaps...  
“Is Thor here?”, he wanted to know, wetting his lips in the process and...  
Direct hit.  
Eyes flew open, they flinched and jerked before getting themselves under control.  
They knew Thor. So he was still somewhere on the five Realms he had not crossed out yet – Vanaheimr, Alfheimr, Svartalfáheimr, Midgardr, or Niflheimr. But where?  
They started to discuss things again.  
Getting angry, Loki snatched himself one of the other books and decided to ignore the lot from now on.

 

.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.

 

“He cannot be – he's too young. He is probably just confused and lost. He's still a child.”  
“Yeah, you're right. And it's not as if no one knows Thor. The guy's practically all over the news.”  
“Let's fetch Annie.”  
“Good idea.”

 

.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.

 

Day four and five were passed with reading. Loki had been given more books, and a dictionary, so his vocabulary broadened significantly. He made lots of mistakes, but hey, learning a language was always a work in progress, and he seemed to impress a lot of people when he was able to follow the conversation on day six.  
So, taking his chance, he asked about Thor.  
The following silence was unnerving, and dread rose in his chest when he noticed the sheepish glances all around.  
“Thor has... helped with a threat. He joined a team of heroes and fought besides them to safe us.”  
Loki blinked. Thor? Fighting with others as a team? No way.  
Besides – his brother was barely thirteen, he was not even allowed to a hunt. How should he have become such a skilled warrior in such a short time?  
“I... think we speak of different people.”  
Even when they seemed to relax and told a bit more, and the appearance could perhaps fit, the characteristics of this Thor did not. He was nothing like his brother.  
“Where am I? Is this Alfheimr?”  
Gunnar frowned. “This is Earth. Midgard.”  
Finally.  
“Midgardr. It is... surprising.”, he stated.  
How had he come across Midgardr? Had the axis of the universe drawn him in when his magic went wild?  
He was left alone after that – brooding as he was, they knew by now he would not answer any more questions. Or ask some himself.  
He returned to the family that watched over him for the time being and pondered about the fact that he had fallen into the only Realm that housed weak humanoids.  
How strange.

 

.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.

 

“It's called Xenoglossy. I am pretty sure the boy has witnessed something traumatic and unsettling, causing his brain to malfunction and revert to a language he has not been able to speak before. Perhaps he has Icelandic relatives and has picked up one or two things, and his subconsciousness has now worked up a pattern so he may speak a language. It would explain why he is able to learn English as fast as he has – it could be his mother tongue.”  
Annie – the child psychologist – told them what she had learned from her brief visit to the child.  
“Coupled with a severe head injury and amnesia, he could believe he really is Loki, Brother of Thor, perhaps because he has seen him on TV and clang to that idea unknowingly.”  
“So he is lost, crazy, ill, and we have no idea where to search for his family. Great.”  
“I believe he has strong issues with his identity, he insists to be Loki of Asgard. But perhaps there is some language barrier he has not crossed and we simply do not understand correctly.”

 

.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.

 

On day twelve, Loki had been seated in front of the television (a strange thing that was able to show moving pictures – he had never seen something like that and was fascinated!) while the people who were responsible for him had been called to some kind of group meeting. Probably revolving around himself.  
Zapping through the myriad of channels, Loki was drawn to a show when he heard a familiar instrument, its soft tunes oh so familiar that he ached with longing for home.  
He wished for his mother's warm embrace before blinking back the tears.  
The person showing up on the screen he did not expect.  
It was... Thor? A bit more grown up, at least. But there was the same blond hair, the warm blue eyes, that smile, and of course – Mjölnir.  
No.  
Loki would never believe it. It had to be an imposter. His Thor was not old enough to be this man, and he swore that he would find him and restore his older Brother's honour. No one was worthy of Mjölnir besides Thor – and no fake hammer would sway the people's hearts. Loki would make sure of it.  
The door opened, the people came back and greeted him, and in that exact moment, his magic decided to act on his temper and made some fruits in a bowl explode.  
The woman shrieked and jumped back a step before looking to the bowl with wide eyes.  
Loki paled.  
“Forgive me! I did not do that with intent!”, he squeaked, quickly retreating from the sofa and bringing distance between himself and the people.  
The man narrowed his eyes at him, and Loki swallowed drily.  
“What did you do?”  
“I am sorry! It is under control most of the time, I did not want to deceive you. Forgive me.”, he stammered.

The Lady with the red hair he had seen that first day came an hour later to fetch him.

 

She was colder than the last time. Loki saw her tense shoulders, felt the distrust and the loathing, but could not place it.  
What had he done? Had he scared her with his last gaze back two weeks earlier?  
“I apologize for angering you.”, he mumbled softly, shyly, but polite like his mother had taught him. A prince had to smooth out his wrongdoings.  
She flinched, a forced smile marring her face.  
“You did nothing wrong. Don't worry about it.”  
Loki had always been good in reading people, and that was a lie so obvious even Thor would have recognized it.  
He did not call her on it.  
He sat in that contraption called “car” again. It was horrifying, being squeezed up in something this fast and tiny, how did the mortals cope? He was Aesir, and knew to be more durable, in case of something happening Midgardians surely would pay with their life.  
“You don't need to be afraid. Happy is the best driver in the whole World.”  
Didn't really calm Loki – if not on the back of a horse, or per Bifröst, travelling would be forever horrifying for him.  
Not responding, he folded his hands in his lap, idly picking at his nails and looking out of the window, onto the street they were crossing right now.  
Sure enough, soon he saw the greens he had awoken in, and when they had passed these, the buildings grew taller again, the light was swallowed to some extend.  
“Come on, Loki, we've arrived.”, the woman said, making a huge effort to smile and be friendly towards him when he knew and sensed she wanted to do the opposite.  
He climbed out of the car and followed her through the room he had been in two weeks before, now crossing it and entering something that she called 'elevator'.  
That one resembled Asgards own devices to an extend – really no one wanted to climb all the stairs to the top of the Palace day for day.  
While the next metal contraption of possible doom lifted them to the higher floors, Loki saw how she watched him intently.  
“You really believe you are Loki.”  
“Who else shall I be?”, he answered with a snarl, downright fed up with these constant questions pertaining his name and person. Couldn't they just believe it?  
She did not speak up again.  
When the doors finally opened, she ushered him out into the open room, a lot bigger than the previous ones he had been in, though not even remotely comparable to his Father's own rooms, not to mention the throne room.  
“Peps! Still alive?”  
“As you see.”  
“Good. The gang's ETA is two minutes, so let's get you something to drink, the pipsqueak a nice spot, and then we wait.”  
It was beyond uncomfortable, to be honest. Loki was forced to sit down on yet another couch, by a man almost smaller than the woman (he had seldom seen a smaller man), beard a crippled, short stubble with sharp lines, and all of Asgards warriors would have wept for such a cruel display. His brown eyes were hard when he looked at Loki, and the Prince got the distinct feeling that he was not here for a friendly chat.  
These people knew him.  
And they hated him.  
If he just knew why.  
“I'm Pepper, by the way. And that's Tony.”, the woman uttered quietly, clinging to a glass.  
“Mr. Stark to you, kid.”  
Loki remained silent, wringing his hands together as inconspicuously as possible.  
The roaring of an aircraft had him look out of the window. Just seconds later, four people exited the floating thing, faces stony or simply unreadable.  
By Yggdrasil.  
The one with the dirty blond hair carried a bow. And looked more than ready to use it.  
The boy gulped, nervousness creeping up.  
What had happened? Who were these people? What had he done?  
“Guys! Awesome to see you. Drink? No? Okay then. Bruce, a tea? You look a bit green there.”  
Loki wanted nothing more than sink into the cushions and disappear when five pairs of eyes narrowed and were fixed on his person.  
That did really not bode well.


	2. A home between Strangers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, now that young Loki is with the Avengers - what will happen?  
> After all, he is the enemy.

“You little shit controlled me and made me kill my own people, innocent people!”, Clint raged, oblivious to the fact that the boy was shying away from him more with every word spoken, fear in his eyes.  
“You almost made me kill Tasha!”, he hissed, reaching out to grab his quiver.  
Steve held him back.  
“Calm down, Barton. Look at him.”  
“Don't trust that manipulative little bastard. He's trying to lure you in.”  
“I don't think so.”, Natasha said, and that shut the archer up. “Aside from the fact that he has barely reacted to half the things we accused him of, he's freaked out. That is not faked. I saw his pulse quicken, his breath is too short – if he would play us, he'd be able to manipulate his own body, and that is something rather unlikely.”  
“Jarvis?”  
“Miss Romanoff's description matches the signals of stress my scanners have picked up, Sir.”  
Grumbling, Clint turned around and left the room for the kitchen. Steve sighed and followed him while Natasha sat down some feet away from the kid that claimed to be Loki, softening her features.  
“Let us say you are Loki. Why are you here?”  
He only shot her a scathing look that was laden with fear and anxiety.  
“I apologize for Clint. He has a history with...”  
...should she really tell him?  
“...with strangers.”  
“With me, you mean.”, the child stated, eyes never leaving her, pressed into the couch as if to shield himself – a reaction that was very reasonable, given the verbal attack they had unleashed on him.  
Natasha started to think this would be quite interesting.  
“Perhaps not with you personally. Look, we are the good guys. Mostly. If you tell us what happened, perhaps we can help you.”

 

.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.

 

Loki had understood not even half of what the people said – yelled – at him. They spoke too fast, too slurred for him to make out definite words besides 'you' and 'I' and other pronouns, but meaning was lost in the whirlwind of accusations (and yes, he had definitely picked up that they were very, very mad at him for some reason he did not know) and the child felt panic clawing at him.  
What if they wanted to kill him? They were mortals, and he Asgardian, yes, but he was outnumbered and would succumb to their force in no time, given his small and scrawny physique.  
When the man with short, dirty blonde hair made a move for his weapon, Loki flinched and tried to vanish into the piece of furniture he was sitting on.  
What in Hel's name had he done to him?  
Then the other redhead approached him, trying to placate him with words he knew to be fake and a posture that meant to calm him, but only made his skin itch because he knew they abhorred him.  
“How old are you?”, she asked.  
“Eight.”  
“Do you know us?”  
Good question.  
“No. I have not seen you before.”  
He saw the heavily veiled surprise in her and decided he would give her a bit more – they were his only chance.  
“I tried magic. It failed. I awakened in the Greens not far from here.”  
The tiny woman (were all Midgardians this short?) blinked once, then turned her head, her eyes flitting back to him.  
“Guys.”, she called and waited for a responsive hum.  
“I think this is a genuine time-traveller.”  
A what?

 

.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.

 

Tony did not like this in the least.  
“Jarvis will have him under 24/7 surveillance, if he tries anything even remotely suspicious or funny, I'll know, and I'll blow him out if my Tower.”  
“Calm down.”, Pepper said. “Jarvis said his energy levels are not nearly as prominent as the last time, what probably means he's not as powerful, if he can do anything at all. If we can believe him, he's nothing more than a child that got lost.”  
“Oh sure, try and trust the fucking God of Lies.”  
Bruce leaned back on the counter, glasses in one hand while rubbing his eyes.  
“This might sound crazy, but the Other Guy is not interested a single bit in the kid. He doesn't recognize him as a threat – and I may be nuts, but I trust his instinct. He's always known when a situation was iffy.”  
“So we have the scientific and emotional proof that he's not the Loki that tried to flatten our city?”, Natasha wanted to know, and Tony groaned.  
“How is this my life?”  
They craned their heads so everyone would be able to look at the silent, almost shy boy that sat on the couch, holding onto his glass of orange juice as if his life depended on it, as if it was his sole anchor in the world. He looked lost, small, intimidated, insecure, and most importantly – not dangerous.  
And alone.  
Steve pursed his lips.  
“We need to get a hold of Thor.”  
“Funny, seeing as he was here two weeks ago and has vanished again.”  
Pepper sighed and walked over to Loki, sitting down besides him, nearer as before. He shot her a wary glance, and what followed made even Clint look at the kid with a little less hatred.  
When Pep had relieved Loki of the glass, she put her arm around him, leaned his body against his, and spoke some hushed words. In a matter of seconds, his green eyes glazed over with tears and he buried himself into her embrace, sobs shaking his small body while he cried like the boy of eight years he was.  
“Damn.”, Tony muttered. “This is freaked out.”

 

.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.

 

He hadn't meant to cry like a baby.  
Really, he had done his best to stay calm and collected, to prove his parents (should they watch) that he was a worthy son, strong and fierce like Thor, that he could face his problems without needing help.  
And then that woman had come, and had smelled like lilacs and spring, just like his Mother, had given him real, physical contact, and he'd been lost.  
He wanted to go home!  
He missed the touch of his Mother's hand to his hair, his brother's strong embraces, even the small smiles from his Father seemed like the most affectionate things he had ever had.  
Tears came and before he knew it, his face was buried in the soft fabric of a jumper, arms encircled him and held him and it felt so good.  
“Ek vil fara heimr!”, he wailed, fists clenched in Pepper's shirt, and he did not care that he acted like a three year old girl – he needed comfort.  
Now.  
“Hush.”, the woman said and tucked his head under her chin, stroking his hair. “It's going to be all right.”  
He didn't understand her words over his crying and sobbing, but he felt the genuine affection she showed him, and it felt just like his Mother's embrace.

 

.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.

 

They did not know how long both Pepper and Loki had sat there, huddled together while the boy cried and whined, muttering words in that language that was and wasn't Icelandic at the same time, Pepper hushing him and comforting him.  
“He really seems to be the complete opposite to the guy that came here smashing things.”, Tony recognized.  
The rest nodded.  
“Fine. You know what? I'll keep him here. He'll get a room, Jarvis will make sure he doesn't try anything funny, we'll teach him to speak English, and we'll figure out what the fuck happened.”  
“Is that an invitation?”  
“Yes, Legolas, that's an invitation. It'll be the biggest and longest slumber party in history.”  
Promising each other that they would not even graze the whole “tried to subjugate the planet”-issue and other tidbits they knew about Loki, they continued to watch over the two figures on the sofa.

 

Over the next week, they arranged themselves with him – he still was eyed with suspicion, and they all watched their backs around the kid, but they made a huge effort to not intimidate him any further and make him feel more at ease with them, even Clint.  
His language skills had improved to a level that made both Tony and Bruce stare at him when he was able to point out a flaw in their scientific ramble one fine morning at breakfast, ducking his head and mumbling an apology as soon as the room grew quiet.  
“Did he just correct my calculations?”, the engineer asked, baffled. Loki's face went red.  
“Sir, his assumption of you forgetting the different resistors and resistances has proven to be right.”  
“I've never forgotten that!”  
“My apologies. May I presume you ignored them on purpose?.”  
“Did you just sass me? Bruce, my own AI is against me.”  
“Well, you did make a huge mistake.”  
Pouting adorably, Tony turned back to Loki, who tried hard to not look into his face.  
“Kiddo, we two will have a talk later.”  
“Yes, Mr. Stark.”, he mumbled shortly before Pepper could swat her boyfriend on the back of his head, resulting in an 'Ouch! Pep, what the hell?' and another pout.  
“You're frightening him! Loki, please, finish your breakfast, and don't pay attention to the idiot.”  
“I am not very hungry, Miss Potts.”  
That had been another very interesting fact – Loki absolutely refused to call them by their given names. Even when they had proposed it, he stubbornly went with the surnames and was so painstakingly trying to be polite that it creeped them out.  
In what dimension had they found that boy? He was nothing like the sassy bastard that had tried to kill them the year prior and had Tasha called a whiny cunt (in the best veiled way ever!).  
“I'm sorry, buddy, I think you misunderstood. I'd like to know exactly what you can do in that head of yours, and if I have to let you calculate things for the next few hours, I'll do it.”  
It took a few seconds, but Loki sheepishly lifted his head to gaze at the other people.  
“You're not angry with me, then?”  
“What, because you saved me hours of testing and frustrated growling at my screens? Nah. Come on, eat up, or Steve will get cardiac arrest that you dared to ignore his motherly instincts.”  
He did so gingerly, and was told to come down to the lab when he was done.

 

“That's impressive.”, Bruce stated, staring at the screens.  
“Said so, didn't I? He's a genius. He picked up our language in three weeks, he's currently reading some Shakespeare Jarvis dug out from the library.”  
“You have a library?”  
“Embarrassing secret, I know.”  
Bruce shook his head with barely hidden amusement. “Hasn't Thor told us he uses some spell to understand our language?”  
“Yeah, Allspeak or something like that.”  
“Then why doesn't Loki use it?”  
Tony shrugged. “Let's ask. As long as I don't know how that works, I can't think of an answer to that.”  
“Sir, Loki is on his way down.”  
Tony grinned. “Showtime!”

 

The engineer loved the absolutely fascinated gaze the kid let sweep over the lab. Loki looked like he'd stepped into some kind of fantasy, his eyes glistened, and his fingers twitched, probably with the need to touch something to make it real. Or interest. Both?  
Whatever.  
“Buddy! Nice to see you. Come here, I need you to look this over.”  
'This' turned out to be a number of equations, calculations and more nerdy things, and Loki scrunched up his face at the variables.  
“By the Allfather, Mr. Stark, is that supposed to be algebra?”  
...and proceeded to unscrew the terms without much effort.  
“...if you change this logarithm with that equation, you have the same result, but an easier way to calculate.”  
Bruce and Tony both sat at the desk, arms crossed, eyebrows risen up to the hairline. Turning his head to the side, the billionaire blinked once.  
“Can we keep him?”

 

.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.

 

Loki had anticipated some kind of humiliation, anything to knock him off his high horse for daring to insult Stark's intelligence, but he was surprised with genuine interest in his abilities and his brain, not only by Stark, but from Banner as well, cross-checking their calculations with each other and him, intently listening when he knew a way to solve them a bit faster, and it was such a new experience that Loki completely forgot to be a Prince.  
“What's this?”, he asked, excited and with red cheeks, pointing to a half assembled thing in gold and red – it looked like armour. A very strange armour, yes, but armour nonetheless.  
“That's Iron Man. My alter ego, so to speak, I'm currently working on Mark50, and he's giving me a bit of trouble.”  
“Mark50?”  
“I name all of my projects. The robot next to you is called Dum-E, by the way. Hey Clumsy, say hello to Loki.”  
The machine whirred and beeped, and if Loki was not drawn in to these men who could keep him entertained with science before, he now officially was.  
“By Yggdrasil, that is fantastic! It lives!”  
Stark laughed.  
“Nah, it's electricity. He's not really sentient – at least, I hope so, because that would be too 'I, Robot' even for my taste, he runs on code I've written. He's a baby-version of Jarvis, just with an actual arm.”  
Loki did not mind – he watched as the claw followed his hand, obviously interested in a game.  
“We do not have these on Asgard. Mr. Stark, you are brilliant.”  
“For the last time, it's Tony, kid. I get that Mr. Stark shit from enough people. I'll ignore you from now on if you don't call me Tony.”  
Loki bit his lip. He couldn't – could he? Mother had told him to heed the customs of foreign Realms, and on Midgard it seemed to be the norm to refer to another person with the surname.  
“I offered, it's really okay.”  
Well, who would he be to deny that man?

 

.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.

 

Bruce had never seen a kid that fascinated.  
Loki was on fire with the newly found entertainment, a curiosity in his whole posture that poked right into his scientific heart.  
He could not understand how that boy had become the terror of Manhatten – if he really was Loki and not some poor, mislead boy with amnesia, as the psychologist had assumed.  
They definitely needed to contact Thor.  
And hope he'd be going to come back rather sooner than later, because even Jane Foster did not know how to get a hold of the man once he was busy in other Realms.  
For now, he settled on watching the child interact with Tony Stark, fully engrossed with some little pet project the engineer was currently working on, teaching Loki about how humans did their thing.  
The kid grasped it all with barely a second to think about it. He would cut in with a question, but these were explicit in and itself, and only to sate the possibly inborn curiosity this Loki sported.  
Until he started to add his own knowledge of the universe.  
Bruce was done when Loki began explaining the Bifröst.

 

.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.

 

It seemed that this occasion was a breaking point in their relationship. Loki suddenly was a lot more open in front of them, not a shy as before. Still perfectly polite, but not fearful any more.  
He practically latched onto Tony or Bruce, and Pepper rolled her eyes every time the three would geek out while eating, forgetting the meal and instead running through theories and theorems.  
It did not matter that Loki was eight.  
He was fully integrated in the holy group that Tony had dubbed “ScienceBro's”, an equal part of their think-and-geek-team, and Pepper, as well as Natasha saw how he changed under the constant attention.  
“He's just like Tony.”, they noticed. “Hiding himself away until he's alone – or in this case, with people who are as crazy as them.”  
“We're missing something here. How did last year happen? I always thought Loki was bred mad.”  
“Well, whatever it was, this one cannot tell us.”, Steve butted in. “I'm positive that he really has no clue how he got here besides that a spell misfired.”  
“We have to wait for Thor to solve this, I think.”, Natasha nodded.  
Hopefully he would not take as long as the last time.

 

.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.

 

“So, I'm curious. Who are you, besides Loki? Farmboy, smith, fisher?”, Tony asked, subtly trying to get more information out of the child. Yes, subtly! He was capable of subtlety when it was necessary.  
Loki shrugged and twirled a holographic image of an Iron Man glove around with interested eyes.  
“Why is this important?”  
“I'm horribly curious. You're too intelligent and literate to be a hard-working person, I know how it feels to be taught politeness when everyone around you is a dumbass. And I could be considered some sort of noble here on Earth, would we still have a lot of them.”  
Loki chuckled at the curse.  
“It won't change anything?”  
“Nah. Pinky Swear.”  
Bruce looked up, interested as Tony was.  
“I'm the Second Prince. Odin Allfather is my Father. He's King of Asgard, and protects the Nine Realms.”  
Whistling through his teeth, the engineer winked at the boy, who went a nice shade of red.  
“For a Prince, you're pretty shy. I always thought your kind would be a bit rasher and more demanding. Little snotty brats.”  
“Not everyone can be Thor.”, Loki mumbled with a frown.  
“That's your brother then, right?”  
“He's a bit older, yes. He's... I don't know, everyone loves him. I do. And he gets really everything he wants just because he is Thor.”  
“Do I sense a bit of jealousy, there?”, Bruce cut in with a soft smile, and the red on Loki's cheeks deepened.  
“No! I mean, perhaps a bit, but he's Thor. No one can deny him anything. It's a rule of the universe.”, he smirked. “And that doesn't mean I can not wrap as many people around my little finger.”  
The adults chuckled at that. Yeah, they had noticed. Just look at them right now.  
“I miss him. Usually, he wakes me at dawn with some idiotic idea that we have to follow right that instance. He's such a child.”, Loki told them, and underneath the chiding, both heard the sadness and the heartbreak.  
“Chin up, Buddy, I'm sure you get back home soon. We're working on getting Thor here.”  
When the child snorted sharply at that, Tony looked up with wide eyes.  
“What?”  
“The Thor that claims to be a hero here? That's not my brother.”  
Uh-oh.  
Exchanging a worried look, the engineer sat down on a wheely chair backwards and looked at Loki.  
“Well, this one claims to be from Asgard as well, and he may have mentioned that he's a Prince.”  
“My Brother would never speak like that. He is strong and unwavering, and not even half as old as the one that claims to be him.”  
Well fuck.  
“So how many Asgard's exist, then? Something does not add up here.”  
“Your hero is obviously a fake. An imposter. Should I meet him, I will make sure he will be punished for that deed. No one impersonates my brother. I will not allow it.”  
Another look was exchanged between the adults. Very protective little brother – and that should be the one who threw Thor out of the Helicarrier? This whole situation got out of control – and all the more interesting.  
“Okay. Um.”  
What to say?  
“Come on, let's take a look at the circuit. I think I found the problem.”

 

.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.

 

“What's it like to be a Prince?”  
Loki lifted his gaze from the book he was currently reading ('War and Peace' from Tolstoy. Just complicated enough to keep him interested.), seeing Bruce sitting at his side with two mugs full of steaming hot cocoa and a gentle smile.  
“That depends.”  
“On what?”  
Taking one of the cups with a thankful nod, the boy leaned back against the couch and warmed his always cold fingers.  
“It is really easy – there are servants for everything, you have to do nothing yourself, practically, every wish you have will be fulfilled. But it's so boring.”, he complained. “We have to learn all these things about history and wars and laws, nothing really exciting, or interesting.”  
“Like science?”  
“I am considered too young to understand it.”, Loki scoffed.  
“I understand that you need these boring things to be able to rule a kingdom later in your life.”  
Shrugging, the kid took a big sip of his beverage, staring into the distance.  
“There is only one throne in Asgard, and it's reserved for Thor. He's the oldest, he is expected to take over once Father is retiring. I don't need all that. I just learn it because Mother wants me to.”  
“Don't you want to be king one day?”  
“I don't know. No. Probably not. Father is always in a hurry, he looks so strained all day. I don't think I'd want that. It's a great responsibility, looking over nine Worlds.”  
“Hm.”, Bruce hummed, staring into the distance as well. Silence spread between them, both thinking about what was asked and answered.  
“Would you mind telling me about the other Worlds? Our planet hasn't known there existed more, and I would really like to know more about them.”  
Loki smiled at him. “Sure. What do you want to know? I have tried to read as much as possible about the other Worlds, when I had time, but I have never actually visited one, so my information could be false.”  
“That's good enough for me. How about you start with how many there are and whatever you know about their characteristics?”  
Loki tapped his chin while thinking how to answer that the best, and then sat down his cocoa.  
“Well, the one I know best is Asgard, obviously. Father once told us that all the Worlds are connected within the World's Tree, Yggdrasil, and that Asgard is the one that guards the others, and therefore is located at the top of the other worlds. It is beautiful, all golden and with wide fields of grass and woods, surrounded by an ocean that connects with the universe.”  
He wouldn't stop talking for at least half an hour.

 

.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.

 

“That kid is not the one who threw me out of the window.”  
“There's not a trace of craving a kingdom in the child.”  
“Agreed. He's kind and attentive, not to mention perfectly polite.”, Steve said in answer, and Clint groaned.  
“I still don't like him!”  
“You don't have to, he knows exactly you hate him.”, Natasha threw in with the most bored expression she had, checking her nails.  
“Well, can you blame me?”  
“No, Barton, and we respect that. It's just that he knows you don't like him, and he has tried to keep his distance in the attempt to not aggravate you further, if you haven't noticed.”  
“'Course I have. He flees as soon as he sees me.”  
“For good reason, I think you made a lasting impression when you almost put an arrow in his eyes on day one.”  
“Shut up, Stark.”  
“Boys.”, Natasha interfered, annoyed, rubbing her temples. “What do we do? We have still not gotten through to Thor, and Loki needs to go back home. We cannot play his babysitters forever.”  
“Let's assume he is a real, honest to god time-traveller. Couldn't we just tell him what he will do later in his life and perhaps change history?”  
Bruce and Tony had not the slightest chance of holding their laughter in. Clint pouted.  
“Honey, that we have this discussion is the best proof that nothing would change at all. At least not for us.”  
“Huh?”  
“There are different theories pertaining time travel.”, Bruce explained while cleaning his glasses. “A: The fixed timeline. If we tell him, it will have already has happened to the Loki that has attacked last year, thus our warning has clearly not worked. B: The Multiverse. We tell him, he heeds our words, and one day he makes a different decision, what will originate in a new dimension – we would never experience our good deed.”  
“And lastly, C, the dynamic timeline.”, Tony put in merrily. “We tell him, he learns from his mistakes, he doesn't repeat, we don't get to know him like last year, so when he shows up as a kid again, we do not know to tell him to be a good little boy, he will do that evil shtick again, and we'll be thrown into a perpetual course of telling and not telling.”  
The archer pouted harder. “Damn.”  
It grew quiet for some moments, then Steve spoke up again.  
“So we will refrain from telling him what he will have done. He is just a boy. He loves Thor, adores him, even, and he would never believe us either way. We would alienate him from us, and we cannot risk that. Besides, he needs us. He's all alone, and we're the only people he has some kind of trust in. Lets try and not destroy that, because I think he's rather innocent right now. I don't want to take that away from him.”  
Neither objected.

 

Over the course of the next two weeks, Tony prodded a bit more, telling Loki of their little super secret boy band (plus one girl), and how they had come to be.  
He changed sceneries, of course, and names, appearances, small things to keep the kid from guessing he was the main participant.  
The engineer said '...rule Earth', and Loki had snorted in the typical way he always did when he found something borderline idiotic.  
“What now? Are we not worthy to be ruled or what?”, Tony proceeded to snark, a hint of amusement in his words, and the boy just smirked a bit wider.  
“What I have read about Midgardr has shown me that you are unable to be united under a single ruler. Whoever attempted it must have been either mad or deluded.”  
“Mad seems like a fitting description...”  
The child laughed.  
“Really, ruling Midgardr! Anyone knows your planet is shielded by Asgard from any threat that may truly harm you, by Odin Allfather himself. Your World is the axis, the centre, it practically translates to 'Middle Earth'--”  
Oh, Tony definitely had to buy him an issue of Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings'!  
“--no one sane would dare to lay claim on it. There would be no escape, and from what I have learned about our judicial system, that person would face execution upon being brought before my Father.”  
That definitely was a new piece of information.  
“The Death Sentence?”  
“Midgardr is under the Allfather's protection. Trying to steal it from him is high treason and will be punished accordingly.”  
Momentarily too shocked to form words, Tony just looked at Loki.  
But...  
Oh Gods, the adult Loki had known.  
He had known what to expect, and despite facing certain death had not put up any sort of fight once Hulk had crushed his spine into the marble. He had let them capture him, and had accepted Thor bringing him back.  
To face Death.  
His stomach lurched.  
“Does Thor know what would happen in such a case?”  
Loki snorted.  
“Could be. He doesn't attend our lessons regularly – he likes to fight more than he likes to learn, and our parents are rather proud of that trait.”  
Knees shaking, Tony sat down on one of his chairs, raking his hands through the brown, curled mess he liked to call hair.  
What if the blonde Norse God had known? How could he live with himself, knowing that Loki would possibly be executed? Had he managed to sway Odin?  
Come to think of it, no one did know what exactly had happened to Loki once the Tesseract had brought them back to Asgard. The possibility that the crazy God was dead was as likely as any other. Hell, as far as he knew, Loki could be suspended under a poison-spitting snake like in the stories. (and wasn't that a rather gruesome picture?)  
“Do you think Execution is too much for that person who almost killed you?”  
The question slapped him back into reality. Did he?  
“I, uh... yeah. Yeah, I do. Where's the second chance in putting someone down? I believe in second chances.”  
“Well, we don't. There is no honour in being spared. It is shameful.”  
Blinking, Tony tried to wrap his head around that.  
The kid was eight – wasn't he a bit young to speak of honour and shame like that? What the hell was Asgard like?  
“You either are a true Warrior, and ready to face your mistakes, or a coward. And no coward will ever be accepted at my Father's table.”  
The engineer blinked again.  
And shook his head. No, this was too high even for him.  
He'd keep quiet, though. Before he would tell that, he'd need a very serious word with Thor.

 

The topic came back to haunt him more than once. Bruce was curious as hell, and asked a thousand questions to learn about Asgardian politics (why? The kid was a genius in the scientific field, why, why did he continue to ask him about Councils and Associates and whatever?), and Loki cemented his carefree attitude towards never being King of the Realm Eternal.  
He was totally cool with it. Stated that he wanted to learn all about the other Realms, about their inhabitants, about their culture, and what King would be able to do that?  
And, every now and then, he would praise his big brother with child-like adoration, claiming that he would be the best King his World would ever see, the bravest Warrior he knew.  
There was genuinely nothing that reminded them of the crazed man that had demanded people to kneel before him, nothing to hint at the insane attempt to subjugate Earth.  
Something was so utterly wrong that they did not know where to start any more.  
One Tuesday the Avengers were called to fend of some threat, and, leaving Loki with Pepper (who had become some sort of subsitute-Mum, apparently), they threw themselves into battle, glad to be able to smash and bash something.  
They were crawling the walls with the new information.  
Upon their return, the boy was all in for their fighting.  
He'd seen the Iron Man armour before, and had been intrigued, but it was nothing compared to the way he looked at Clint and his bow, as if the archer somehow held all the answers in the universe.  
But, as the case stood, they still were not at good terms with each other. Loki had once asked Bruce why Clint was so unapproachable, but had not gotten any answer.  
So, three days after the mission, at dinner, Clint broke with a glare and a sigh.  
“What?”, he hissed at the kid, who went red right up to his ears and lowered his gaze.  
“Oh no, nothing of that. Spit it out – I hate being stalked, and really, you were just inches away from that.”  
Biting his lip, Loki had tried to shuffle from his chair. Steve had given him a bold look that promised utter disappointment should he flee now, and (probably pushing some buttons in Loki's lonely heart with his motherly stares) got him to mumble something so low neither understood.  
“Come again?”  
“I want to learn it!”, the kid yelled before pouting adorably, cheeks tinted cherry red with embarrassment. “Happy now?”  
For a moment, no one did anything – not even breathing.  
Then the archer stood up and left.  
Loki deflated.  
“Give him a bit of time. He has... issues.”  
“You all have.”, the kid muttered angrily, pushing his plate away and copying Clint's action, leaving for his room.  
Natasha sighed. “This is fucked up.”  
“No, really? I wouldn't have noticed.”, Tony gave back with a snort.  
“I'll go after him.”, Pepper offered. “This whole situation isn't easy for him, either. He is frustrated and homesick.”  
“You love being his Mum, don't you?”  
“It's relaxing, really, to look after a real child for a change and not you, Tony.”  
“Ouch, Pep, that hurts. Deep down here.”, he said with a whine and tapped his chest. “Gimme a kiss and play your part, Sweetheart.”, he then relented with a fond smile. “You're the perfect mother figure.”  
“Is that a proposal?”, she chuckled, leaning in to give the demanded kiss. “Never would have thought you'd fancy a kid.”  
“Hey, don't start to twist the words in my mouth.”  
But she was on her way out already, hand waving and lips pulled into a smirk.  
Bruce coughed.  
“As long as Loki does not think of you as some sort of surrogate Father...”  
Tony almost choked on air.

 

.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.-~^°^~-.

 

“Go away!”  
Sighing, Pepper rubber her forehead.  
“Please, Loki, open the door. I just want to talk to you.”  
“I don't want to talk.”, he said, but despite the words, the door clicked and Pep was allowed into the room.  
Loki resumed his place on the bed, leaning against the headboard, knees drawn to his chest, arms tightening around the legs – Pepper's heart ached when she watched him visibly curl into himself and essentially hide from the world.  
Gingerly taking a seat on the edge of the bed, she sighed softly.  
“Don't blame him. He had a rough time.”  
Loki snorted. Pep didn't exactly know, but it sounded slightly wet.  
“It was me, wasn't it?”  
“What?”, she asked, blinking in confusion.  
“Whatever happened to him. It was me. That attack. You all hate me.”  
Definitely tearing up.  
“Oh no. No, Loki, no. That wasn't you.”  
Well, not even a complete lie – the two Loki's were so different that Pepper really didn't feel bad for telling him that.  
“You are not even close to being like that person. And we do not hate you. You are a kind, intelligent, and perfectly polite person, it is just...” - cue frustrated groan - “look, that guy looked a bit like you. That is all.”  
Kicking off her heels, she scrambled up to the boy and pulled him into a hug after he had raised his head just a bit, glimpsing at her with barely shrouded hope that she was being honest. Loki did not hesitate to accept the gesture and wrapped his thin arms around Pepper as tightly as he could without hurting her.  
“Don't worry. He'll come around. No one hates you. All of them have some sort of trust issue, and it is really hard for them to open up to foreigners. Please, don't think you are at fault for anything. You're just a boy. They're adults.”  
Placing a quick kiss on Loki's black curls, she smiled wrily.  
“Honestly, you're the most mature out of all of them.”  
That won her the small chuckle she had hoped for.  
“So I did not accidentally blow up Manhatten?”  
“Not even in your wildest dreams.”  
Another teeny weeny little white lie – accidental wasn't her word of choice at all. But the sweet boy in her arms trusted her. She had to make sure he knew the Avengers did not dislike him. Not really, at least.  
There was a healthy amount of watching involved, yes, but that was to be expected.  
Apart from that?  
Pepper had been surprised how easily the child fit into their lives.  
As if he belonged.  
Somehow.  
It was a bit scary, to be honest.  
“Come back to the table, Natasha has made her famous Vatrushka's. And I think she tried something new with the filling – Jarvis had to order honey and berries yesterday.”  
Green eyes blinked in interest – Pepper ticked off “sugar” on the internal list of typical cravings children had, and grinned.

 

The following Monday, the archer was watching Loki every second he got, not overly conspicuous, but not hiding what he did, either.  
The kid grew more nervous the longer Clint was near him, jerking around at the most silent sound or ruffle of clothes.  
In the afternoon, the coffee machine gurgled and frothed. Before long, Loki felt someone tip him on the shoulder, and – still twitchy – almost jumped to the ceiling.  
Clint rolled his eyes, held out a cup for the boy to grab, took a sip of his own beverage, and nodded to the elevator.  
“One-time offer, Kid.”  
It took a few seconds, but then Loki hurried after the other, careful to not spill a single drop of the hot chocolate - the first sign of acceptance the sandy haired man had offered him.

 

Anew things changed. Instead of clinging to Bruce, Tony or Pepper, Loki now officially felt at ease and, perhaps, a bit at home as well. He was clearly comfortable around the others, smiling widely and happily whenever he could stun one of them with his knowledge or quick wit.  
“We have adopted him, haven't we?”, Tony asked, one eyebrow raised high, when he found himself carding through short black hair on his lap some weeks after Loki had been ushered to them, the child sleeping soundly with his head on the older man's leg, feet drawn up.  
“Well, you did take to him rather quickly.”  
“...the 'we' included you, Capsicle. If you haven't noticed, he's as clingy with you as he is with me or Pep. Or Clint, however the hell that happened.”  
“He has a mean aim.”  
“We've done the right thing.”, Bruce said softly, gaze fixed on some point in the distant sky. “Even not considering Thor would skin us alive if we had hurt his little brother, villain or not, he has not once shown any of the traits we've seen before. He... fits.”  
And with that, Bruce had stated what they all thought, but couldn't quite utter.  
It grew silent. Loki had tried so hard to not be a nuisance, not be a bother to anyone, to behave as he probably thought he should, and for the first week had been vigilant constantly. If he thought he'd made a mistake, well, he would make sure to not do it again, whatever it was. He helped with meals, with setting the table, he kept his room squeaky clean all the time, and was impeccably polite to whomever he met.  
Once they had given him some kind of acceptance, he all but flourished. Loki was curious, constantly searching for all the answers the universe could give him, much like Bruce and Tony when one of their science binges happened (which had rapidly increased once they had figured out the kid could improve their work in a second's worth), he had started working out with both Steve and Natasha, and, as eager as he was in the lab or workshop, sucking up any information they could give him, unconsciously repeating movements while doing something completely unrelated like watching TV.  
Genuinely interested in whatever he could learn, the asgardian Prince had truly connected to all of them in some way or another.  
And since Clint had made an effort to push aside his anger, it was like Loki had completed them somehow.  
As bizarre as it sounded, the Avengers had started to become a real family. A fact that did terrify them on certain levels. Not enough, but the thought alone that there were people in their lives who they trusted that deeply made each of them wary and relaxed at the same time.  
“We are friends, right?”, Tony asked softly, eyes never leaving the child.  
Natasha coughed into the uncomfortable silence that spread out after that.  
The air thick with tension, nobody moved more than a minute shift, a wring of hands.  
Until Bruce huffed out a laugh, rubbed his eyes and leaned back.  
“Seriously, we are the strangest bunch of people ever.”  
Like smoke through the exhaust hood, the cloud of tension dissipated and left behind an atmosphere that neither of them had experienced very often in their lives.  
“You said we were a time-bomb.”, Steve answered drily, what made Tony snicker and grin widely.  
“Yeah, and we totally are. Just more the firework-sort and less... I almost said destructive, what would be a complete lie, so I'll roll with 'boring'.”  
“In what universe are explosions boring?”  
“Oh come on, there's only so much fun a man can have with the usual explosion, Legolas.”  
“Guys.”, Pepper intoned, accompanied by an eye-roll. “Tony, please refrain from saying 'boring', I always assume you'll go and throw yourself out of the window again just for shits and giggles.”  
“In my defence, it was a perfect way to try out that particular feat of engineering.”  
Pepper kicked him softly, making him giggle.  
“Bring him to bed already, he's tuckered out.”  
“Yes, Mom.”  
She kicked him again.

 

“Hey, kid, be careful around that. I guarantee a missing limb if you don't watch your step.”  
Quickly taking distance from the device (an arc-reactor powered laser, if Loki had understood correctly), the boy focused back on the task of tweaking a design so Tony could begin manufacturing some new gadgets.  
“That arc-reactor, how did you get the idea to build one?”  
Tony blinked, thrown out of loop by that question.  
“My dad actually had the idea. He came across a device that was not... um... from around here, and tried to replicate it, I think. Couldn't ask him.”  
“I read about an artefact similar to that in our library. It was lost to Asgard in the war between us and Jotunheimr.”  
Bruce stopped scribbling notes into a book.  
“It was called the Tesseract, a cube of infinite energy. Our Elder insist that it is one of the legendary Infinity Stones, and therefore indestructible.”  
Five seconds ticked by, and both adults spaced out for a few moments.  
“Yeah, uh, we know.”, Tony said, earning a slightly confused stare. “My Dad found it here. After... some bad people found it first, that is, and tried to rule the world.”  
Loki's eyes went wide as saucers.  
“You have the Tesseract in your possession?”, he asked, incredulous, mouth hanging open. “How does it feel? Is it stable? Can you operate it? May I... may I see it?”  
“Sorry, Lokes, we've given it back to your Father. Really, all it brought us was war, and even though I would have loved to dissect the thing, I'd rather see it far, far away from Earth.”  
“Oh.”  
Tony felt oddly guilty that he couldn't provide that sort of food for Loki's brain.  
Wait.  
“What the hell is an Infinity Stone?”  
A gleam of something lit up in the green eyes. Tony recognized the glint for one of thrill, anticipation, the want to experience. He had seen it often enough in the mirror.  
“A source of unimaginable power. There are six different ones, apparently, each possessing a unique skill, and united they are omnipotent.”  
Bruce swallowed audibly. “Omnipotent as in allmighty?”  
“Omnipotent as in able to destroy the universe.”, Loki said matter-of-factly, chin high, cheeks rosy with the thought of such power alone, it seemed.  
“Alas, they are scattered across the Worlds. Mother told me the last time they were united, the one who possessed them wiped out half the universe with a single thought. Father watches over the Gauntlet that is catalyst to the power.”  
And, with a shy bite to the bottom lip, he tapped the holographic imagine in front of him. “It would be wise to never collect them again. They are said to be highly volatile and dangerous.”  
“No shit, Sherlock.”

 

Tony as well as Bruce silently decided to not show the kid their notes concerning the Tesseract, if just to see how strong Loki's desire for power really went – his eyes had lit up in a way that showed them without a doubt how very interested in potentially dangerous and enormously powerful artefacts he truly was.  
Loki did not ask about it, though he must knew they had taken a peek at the Cube.  
He looked like he wanted to, fidgeting and nibbling at his bottom lip, but in the end did not inquire about the Tesseract again.  
Instead, the metaphorical hell broke loose a few days later, when Jarvis calmly asked the two scientists to please hurry to the Penthouse.  
“Miss Potts is in need of assistance. Master Loki is in dire distress and she cannot calm him.”  
The men shared a quick glance and rushed upstairs.  
Steve and Clint were already there when they arrived, watching Pepper and Loki standing some feet apart, the boy pale and shaking while Pep tried to inch closer, failing miserably.  
“Loki-”  
“Please don't throw me out!”  
“Lok-”  
“I didn't mean to! Really! Please don't send me back to the other people!”, he hurriedly added, hands clasped together in front of his chest, eyes wide with fear and apprehension. He took a step back when Pepper came closer.  
“I'm sorry! I cannot control it perfectly, I am still learning how, Mother said it needs time!”  
“What the hell happened to my windows?”, Tony asked, blinking rapidly at the glass front that covered his living room and bar.  
The sound Loki made was a perfect mix between sob and pained cry.  
“I'm so sorry, Tony, please don't be mad at me! I didn't mean to do it, it just happened!”, he forced out between shaky intakes of breath, tears in his eyes.  
No, wait, tears rolling down. Damn.  
“Now slow down. Breath.”, the engineer said, before blinking at his windows again.  
One was shattered – glass covered the floor, and it took all Tony had to not snicker at the thought that Loki definitely liked to destroy exactly that window somehow.  
The one left to it had been turned into a piece of art somehow.  
“Is that Yggdrasil?”  
Loki swallowed hard, face distorted miserably, and nodded.  
“Yes.”  
“With the nine Realms?”  
“Yes.”  
“Steve?”  
“Well, I've certainly never seen a stained glass window without cames. Impressive work.”  
“Just look at that, there are figures depicted.”, Tony muttered, pinched his eyes together to see more detail while he went over to the window and squatted down, running a finger down the glass. A grin spread his lips. “Come over here, Spangles. Tell me what that is.”  
Steve did, with a sigh.  
“It's... Clint?”, he more asked than stated, prompting Tony to chuckle.  
“This”, the engineer said, loud enough for Loki to hear without problems, “is the best thing to happen to any of my windows ever. Seriously, what exactly has you so worked up?”  
“I...”  
“Is it because of the other one? Don't worry, it'll be fixed before you know it. Isn't the first time a window gets shattered around here.”  
Loki opened his mouth once again, but couldn't even begin to speak as he broke down in tears and sobs, almost wailing, and Tony just then understood that even gods were no more human than they were, especially an eight year old who-knows-how far away from home and with no way to get back.  
His face fell before he made his way over and in a sudden bout of instinct just threw his arms around the terrified child, cradling his head to his chest and muttering soothing nonsense.  
The kid almost clawed his fingers into Tony's shirt, clinging to him like he was the only thing keeping him alive, all the while crying and sniffling. The engineer looked around in despair, trying to get any idea on how to proceed. Clint and Steve didn't look very experienced, either, both rather lost in the situation, but Pepper's lips twitched into a small smile.  
He did good, then. Okay.  
“It's okay, Buddy, I got you. I got you.”  
“I... I... please don't be mad at me.”, Loki cried into his chest.  
“No one is mad at you. Things happen. Calm down.”  
Tightening his hold on the small body, Tony shuffled them to the couch and sat down, ending up with Loki on his lap.  
Well.  
“Tell me what happened. I promise to not kick you out or get angry. Pinky promise.”  
The kid stiffened before sighing in defeat.  
The first sentence was spoken softly, more of a murmur than actual voice. But then Loki noticed the absolute lack of negative reaction and swallowed once, hard, and began to speak louder, more firm.  
He and Pepper had watched TV, some crack-y reality show that had them laugh tears, the topic this time an artist who was pretty aloof and arrogant, and, without thinking about it, Loki had changed the formerly translucent glass to the colourful image it now was – scaring Pepper out of her wits when the light changed suddenly.  
That had in turn kicked off Loki's magic, the second window had combusted into the room, Pepper had given off a small scream, and Loki figured that this was it now.  
“I apologise.”, he whispered into the silence, “it is part of me and I cannot always control it perfectly, though I am learning. It will not happen again.”  
Tony groaned.  
“Is it correct to think your magic created that painting without you deliberately wanting it?”  
The kid went beet-red from neck to the tips of his ears and nodded.  
“That defies practically every law I have ever believed in.”  
Loki ducked his head, mouth set firmly into a frown.  
“I'm sorry.”  
Groaning again, the engineer squeezed the small shoulders in front of him and shook his head.  
“Look, this is not at all your fault. It's just that we humans apparently are dense and dumb and are so far behind in evolution that I could cry. I need to understand that. Bruce, do you need to understand that, too?”  
A suffering sigh.  
“Do I have another option?”  
“Nope.”  
“Then yes, it seems like I do.”  
Grinning brightly, Tony turned his head back to Loki, who looked terribly spooked.  
“Show me more. If you can morph my window to that without wanting to, I am dying to see what you actually can do while actively thinking about it.”  
“You... but...”, Loki started, blinking, his eyes so full of confusion that it made all of them frown again. “I should not do it. Father would never allow me to show this... this trait to anyone but Mother.”  
“Why?”, Pepper asked and sat down besides them, the others following suit.  
Loki made a noise in the back of his throat that was frustration and anger and loathing all at once.  
“It is a woman's art, the way of cowards and liars, and I should not even be able to do it, much less practise it.”  
And, after a few seconds of silence he added, “I have dishonoured my Family and the whole of Asgard by letting it go out of my control.”  
His head whipped around when Clint let out a unnerved “Maaaaaaaan.”  
“Asgard seems to be a very complicated Realm.”, Natasha added with a small smirk. “But we are not there. And, to be honest, I am quite curious myself. What fields are covered? Is it solely art, or could you theoretically repair the window as well?”  
“I... perhaps I could.”, Loki said, almost shy.  
“Try it.”  
It was exactly like one pictured it. The child turned to stare at the window, lower lip between his teeth, and, after some seconds of nothing happening, Loki's brows sank down, his face now determined and concentrated.  
The shards stirred, one after one merging together to recreate the whole thing, cracks melting together and finding their fitting pieces without failure.  
Once the glass was unblemished again, Tony covered his face with one hand and whined.  
“This is physically impossible. How is this physically impossible when I clearly just watched it happen? Bruuuuuce.”  
“We'll figure it out.”  
“Loki, please, pretty please, tell me there is an actual scientific explanation behind your magic. Please.”, he begged, and the kid could not suppress a giggle.  
“Of course there is.”  
“Oh thank God.”

 

Loki did not understand why he was not being shunned. Why he was allowed all his previous privileges, and why no one seemed to care that he was able to manipulate seiðr.  
His carelessness could have caused a diplomatic mess between Midgard and Asgard, and the Allfather would have been so very angry.  
His Mother would probably be disappointed in his lack of control.  
Biting his lips, Loki let his gaze wander through the workshop Tony and Bruce had shown him so often before, both scientists submerged in a discussion about particles and wavelengths, tweaking and adjusting equipment every now and then.  
“You don't have to do it if you feel that uncomfortable.”  
Loki almost jumped. Pepper and Natasha had appeared at his side, a bar of chocolate held out for him to take.  
“They are just really curious, and they go way overboard when something extraordinary happens. But they will never force you to do something you don't want, Loki.”  
“This is not extraordinary. This is a shame that needs to be hidden.”  
Hopping up on the table, the Russian smirked.  
“Because in Asgard men are judged by how hard they can hit?”  
“Using seiðr is cowardice. No honest warrior would ever use it.”  
“Then it's good we are on Earth.”  
Blinking, Loki looked up to see Tony and Bruce grin at him. Both seemed to be terribly excited.  
Because of him.  
Because of his magic.  
“Look, we really don't care. There's enough muscles and brawn at this tower, you are a refreshingly intelligent head to pick at. And come on, magic? Studying that is any scientists wet dream.”, the billionaire added, before tweaking a set of sensors again, seemingly in an afterthought.  
“Well, at least I hope we can get anything. It's not as if I have done this ever before.”  
Loki gnawed at his lips once more. He still did not understand. Hadn't Mother told him that humans were superstitious? He recalled hearing about ostracising mages and witches, societies which did not accept anything strange and unknown, and seeing as Midgard was pathetically undersupplied with seiðr to draw power from, there were not even a hundred mages who could do more than Loki already was able to.  
“Loki, we don't classify people after their skills around here. Not anymore, at least. We are all equals in this tower, and that includes you. All of us are unique, with unique skills and traits.”, Bruce said softly. “Our difference is what makes us us, and we don't like you less because you can do magic. Earth is not Asgard. You don't need to be afraid of our reactions. If you feel like it – do it. Practise, so that no more windows suffer, or just get a feel for it. If it is a part of you, then you should embrace it.”  
Tony raised an eyebrow at his friend, a look on his face that clearly spoke of the worst hypocrisy he had ever heard, and his hand waved once with a pointy thing in Bruce's direction, encompassing his whole stature.  
“Jarvis, we have that recorded, have we?”  
“Tony, this is completely different--”  
“Don't even dare go there.”  
“--for a lot of reasons.”  
“What, Big Mean and Green is not a part of you? Come on, cut the bullshit.”  
“He's not--”  
“Embrace him!”  
“Tony--”  
“He's a part of you!”  
“Stark.”  
“We could start a group for you two.”  
“It's DID.”  
Tony's mouth froze in a half-formed sentence.  
“Oh.”  
Loki would swear on his life that the smile Bruce gave him was the most painful one he had ever seen (despite having not the tiniest idea what this DID was exactly).  
“I literally cannot control him. The Other Guy is exactly that. An other guy. But Loki can control his magic. So he should.”  
“Well, okay then. Don't think you'll get away that easily, though, we are not finished.”, Tony grinned, prompting Bruce to roll his eyes in the most exasperated manner ever. Loki couldn't help the small giggle that escaped.

 

Bruce had never before seen either Tony or Loki that excited. In the few hours of scientific magic both of them had more fun than ever before, he was sure.  
After the initial jitters had vanished in Loki, the child got up to the most wondrous things. Halfway through, Tony reverted back into a kid himself and demanded tricks and illusions and whatever he could come up with, what left Bruce to monitor the readings.  
“Make it smaller.”  
“Okay, bigger again. Make it gigantic.”  
“Colours? Can you do other colours?”  
“Rainbow, huh? Interesting. How about...”  
Loki complied easily with every wish. With a grin, a murmured word and a flick of his hand he gave Tony whatever he wanted, and the engineer beamed like a Christmas tree.  
When Jarvis piped in that they had been at it for three hours straight and that Miss Potts had ordered a break, they sat down at a table, snacks and drinks devoured in no time at all.  
Bruce grinned at the other two, cheeks red with agitation, a buzz of contentment in the air.  
“What?”, they asked.  
“Oh, nothing. You had fun?”  
“Immensely.”, Loki nodded. “It is liberating. I have never felt a thrill like that before. I always held back in fear of it, but I don't think I have to fear it at all.”  
“You had perfect control.”, the scientist added with a small smile, which Loki returned shyly.  
“I did not think about it. The seiðr is no mere energy or power, it is sentient, to a degree, and knows when one lacks confidence. It helped me along, and I don't think I will have any more problems with that.”  
“Tell us about that dimwitted notion that you are a shame up in the Golden Lands.”, the engineer then asked, earnest all of a sudden, while refilling the glasses.  
Loki did.

 

“It's a mix between homophobia, sexism and racism, I think.”  
Pepper sighed heavily. “What is, Tony?”  
Shrugging, the genius sat down between the others, propping his arms up on his knees.  
“The magic thingy. If you aren't like Thor, you are worth less as a man. They favour strength, braveness, barging into battle without thinking of the consequences much. Brawn over brains, so to speak. Magic is traditionally an art that only woman master. Fighting with magic is even less prestigious – thinking up a strategy that entails sneaking and spying is so underrated it practically doesn't exist. Use it, and you are branded a coward. Throw magic in the mix and you're practically the least liked person in Asgard.”  
She sighed again.  
“Loki?”  
“They even have their own words for describing such people!”, Tony burst out, hands wrought together. “No one knows of Loki's ability – and holy Hell, it is amazing! – because he fears shaming his family with being less than a man for his 'affliction'.”  
“Basically, magic is science so advanced only a few people can access it to the extend Loki can. That gives him advantages other people do not like in the least. Most mages in the Nine Realms have been woman, and most men have been labelled a honourless disgrace that should have been born a woman.”, Bruce completed. “At least, that is the Asgard-Version. Apparently, Odin himself is capable of magic, and not just tricks, and the King of the Vanir, Frey, but they are another matter altogether.”  
“Why are woman not regarded the same?”  
“Because they don't go into battle, usually. Loki and Thor are Princes, though, and are expected to defend their Realm if need arises. Either they are honourable, worthy warriors, or Asgards reputation will suffer under the fact that Loki is a mage.”, Bruce said softly.  
“That is cruel. It's like forcing a kid who's loves music to work as a lawyer and never touch an instrument again.”, Steve said, aghast.  
“Exactly. He's good, he's a goddamn genius with magic. Loki loves it, he thrives on it, it is more than a part of him, it is what makes him him.”  
Tony gazed into the darkness outside, hand still wringing with each other.  
“Imagine spending a thousand years like this. If anyone ever finds out what he is capable of, there will be no moment when his actions will not be questioned. Whatever success he has will forever be linked to him being a cheater, because that is how they will see it. He will be constantly on watch for his skills in a field that is considered unmanly, downright female. Hell, even Earth has its problems accepting men with woman's talents. Imagine that quadrupled. More.”  
He took a deep breath.  
“He told us that there are races that embrace magic more than Asgard. The Giants, or Jotünn, he called them. The Elves. They are all patronized by Odin, all watched, even demonized in case of the Giants. Loki lives with tales that ingrain in him that magic is bad, that it is unworthy.”  
“But the Poetic Edda tells that he is a sorcerer. He must have chosen to accept it.”, Natasha chimed in softly. Bruce nodded.  
“We thought so, too. It proves everything. He is the sneaky one in a horde of brutes, the God of Fire and Mischief, sometimes even called God of Lies. He is blamed for a lot of things, but in the end often is the one to right it. Of course, we don't know how accurate the Edda is, so we have to wait and ask Thor. And we will. I want to know what happened to him that turned him into a would-be-dictator.”

 

It would be still a few days that turned into weeks until the Thunderer would appear. Tony had achieved to call a Dr. Jane Foster to inquire after her boyfriend of another Realm weeks ago, but hadn't heard a peep from her after. She had hissed something that suspiciously sounded like “Shield can fuck off” and had not picked up her phone since.  
Well, it seemed there were still unsolved issues.  
In the meantime, Clint and Loki had become inseparable, often accompanied by Tony to play a prank or two on their friends, and the time spent in the labs to just do science almost doubled again. Pepper had a hard time dragging them out to eat and sleep, sometimes just settling for tossing an airbed into the lab and let them do whatever they wanted.  
Often enough she found Bruce, Loki and her boyfriend the next morning cuddling on the things, deeply asleep and more at ease than she had ever seen them.  
The young asgardian showed them the absolute control he had about fire, and it blew their minds. It didn't even seem to drain him of his energy as other things would when repeated often enough, he could let the flames dance on his hand for hours on end, making them bigger, hotter, without burning anything down.  
“God of Fire.”, Natasha had whispered, and the happy glint Loki had sported when he heard the faint words was as burning as the flames in his hands.  
Loki felt at rest. Accepted. He still wanted to go home, but as long as he wasn't there, he would use the chance with his very own friends that didn't just stick around because he was a prince or because Thor was demanding he accompany him. He would learn to control his magic, so that his parents would be proud of him.  
In the beginning, he had wondered if this was not an elaborate trick, the acceptance, but then Tony and Clint had asked if he could teach them magic, and that had broken any doubt.  
No one on Asgard would learn magic of their own free will. These two were warriors, and they wanted to learn it?  
They weren't at all like the people at home.  
He really liked them.

 

Loki's head shot up from his design, hands frozen in mid-air.  
“What's up?”  
Blinking once, the child had hastily closed his holo-table.  
“It's Thor. He has come. He's here.”, he said, almost stumbling over the words with the smile that blossomed on his face, and then he was rushing to the stairs and gone before either Bruce or Tony could follow.  
“Quick now, or they'll flatten the tower.”

 

He could go home. Finally!  
They had found him, they had Heimdall get Thor to Midgard, to fetch him, to bring him back home!  
Loki didn't know how fast he took the steps of the stairwell, didn't care that he just had left his friends alone.  
He wanted his brother. Now.  
“Thor!”, he yelled when he finally opened the doors to the penthouse where his magic could feel him.  
The smile slipped from his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> People, thank you all for the interest. I hope it'll get (even) better.  
> Tell me what you think, feel, expect. I wanna know how this affects other people :D
> 
> *Ek var fara heimr* - crude translation: "I want to go home". Sorry, I can't speak Old Norse.  
> *DID - Dissociative identity disorder, formerly known as Multiple personality Disorder, the illness Bruce suffers from in classical Marvel Canon.
> 
> PS: Somehow the site would'nt accept my cursive parts. Sorry about that. I'll see if I can change it later.


	3. The Trickster's Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wrapping it up now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo, this comes straight from my honeymoon, after missing meeting our very own Loki by approximately 3 hours, but at least I've seen the set of the "High Rise" in Bangor now. Well.  
> Enjoy.

When his Jane had told him of the call, Thor had not thought more into it. He had taken his time to mourn properly for his Mother and Brother, now that the imminent threat was averted.  
When he had felt like seeing his former Warriors of Midgard again, he had asked Jane if she would accompany him, but she was occupied otherwise, as much as she would have loved to get to know a certain Bruce Banner.  
When he had landed on the protruding installation on Stark Tower, memories flashing of a battle, of war and slights and hurt feelings, there had been a sharp pain in his chest.  
When he had entered the room with the polite greeting of a bodiless voice, he had not expected someone to cry out his name.  
And when he had laid eyes on the small figure that had stopped running upon seeing him, Mjölnir fell from his hands in shock.  
His voice had seldom be more hoarse as he spoke his brother's name.

 

They didn't realize the others had arrived as well.  
Thor was still trying to understand how it could be possible for his Brother to be alive, and as a child to top it. His heart thumped wildly, as hope settled in that he probably hadn't lost him despite all that had happened. Had the Norns spared him? Had the Valkyries decided to gift him life anew, a second chance?  
Loki meanwhile tried to wrap his head around the fact that the figure and imposter he had seen on TV so often was in fact his Thor. He recognized the man, even if he was so much older than the one he had left behind in Asgard. Mjölnir had made contact with his magic as soon as she had been in the vicinity, and that really was all the proof he needed.  
“What has happened to you?”, the child wanted to know, voice small in fear of the answer.  
Thor blinked away his tears.  
“What has happened to you? I remember you to be taller.”, he smiled.  
Loki growled – he'd grow!  
“Don't make fun of me, Thor, I can't help that I am eight.”  
The smile fell off Thor's face again.  
“Eight.”  
“Just because you look like you're already an adult doesn't mean I have to.”  
“You are eight.”  
“By the Norns, have you gone dumb? What has happened? Is this an alternate reality? Of course I am eight! You should be thirteen! Instead you look like nearing thirty! Or something between that and four-thousand.”  
Stunned silence followed the outburst.  
But instead of replying anything, Thor's face went incredibly soft with emotions, tears welling up again as he crouched down, the faintest hint of a smile on his lips, and then opened his arms, just a tad.  
Loki took the hint immediately and launched himself into his brother's embrace with a choked sob.  
“I don't know why you are so big and I didn't want you to be my brother but you are, and I have missed you so, so much.”, he whispered into the blonde's ear, hugging him close, as tightly as he could. “I'm so glad you're here.”  
Thor couldn't stop the tears.

 

Later, when Loki had drifted off to sleep in Thor's arms, and said big Brother had tucked him in carefully, he had time to process whatever had happened in these hours.  
His face was blank as he stared at a wall, trying to understand.  
“Thor, tell us.”  
The God blinked once and swallowed hard, a well-known knot forming in his throat.  
“Asgard has been attacked, by a force older than any of the Realms. Jane had come upon an artefact of immense power that drew the enemy to Asgard, and we were horribly unprepared for such actions.”, he rasped.  
“My Mother was killed protecting her. We fled to another Realm, with the help of Loki, to draw them out.”  
Clint wanted to interrupt, but Bruce silenced him with a single look.  
“He is...”, Thor said and his voice broke. “He was the only one with knowledge on how to wander the hidden paths connecting the Realms.”  
Rubbing his face once with his hands, the Thunderer exhaled shakily.  
“Loki was killed by Algrim, after protecting Jane and saving me. To see him here, so young, so carefree, hurts more than I could have imagined.”  
“Loki is dead?”, Tony asked, surprised, and pale.  
Thor nodded.  
“He was stabbed. Algrim destroyed his sternum with a weapon of the Dark Elves. Loki managed to pulverize the fiend, but his wounds were too severe to save him. He took his last breath in my arms, and I had to leave him behind in a sandstorm that made it impossible to retrieve it later. He is gone.”  
“Fuck Thor, I'm so sorry.”  
“I am as well.”

 

At least Odin hadn't executed the Trickster, Tony thought. He'd not immediately inquire after this, but eventually, he would. For now, he settled with treating the big Blonde to one of his best scotches, drinking to Loki, the one who had died, and keeping Thor standing.  
The kid-Loki (damn, that would start getting complicated) had started to ask a thousand questions after the initial shock had lessened that morning.  
“Are you king? Has Father abdicated? Have you married already? Who is she? What about me? Are the Frost Giants still existing or have you finally ended them all?”  
The last question had made Thor stiffen, his smile vanishing.  
Loki scoffed. “Come on, I've already figured out that you're from the Future. Have you fulfilled your promise to Father?”  
The God had shrugged with a forced grin. “I have heard that the Future shall remain unspoken.”  
Pouting, his brother had sat down. “Since when do you care for rules?”  
“Since they could save what should not be changed.”  
“Figures.”, the kid had huffed.  
But then the Thunderer had asked about Loki, and what he had experienced on Midgard, and green eyes had lit up with happiness and affection as he began to explain.  
They had never seen Thor look so heartbroken and glad at once.  
Tony filled the glass back up again.  
“You've gone awfully quiet when he asked about the Giants. No heroic battle-tale?”  
Shame flittered over the ageless face. Shame and anger, but at whom Tony could not make out.  
“I am loath to admit the many faults we have done against him, and this one will forever be the heaviest. Loki is adopted, you know that. He was born a Frost Giant. The very race I promised to end when I was the thirteen years old he knows me to be. It must have happened recently.”  
“What?”, Pepper hissed. “You knew? You knew he was one of them and still you taught him to hate them? Whenever he tells us about them, he holds nothing for them in his heart but anger and hatred and loathing! How could you?”  
“Our parents knew. We did not. I was told of his heritage when I returned from my banishment. When we believed him dead, before Mother saw him in between the Worlds.”  
The second glass was drained without much thought. Tony saw fresh tears.  
“Loki went mad with that knowledge. Something broke in him, he grew violent, and before we had any chance to reach out for him, he was tumbling out of our reach, into the hold of the Tesseract. I did not recognize him when he attacked Midgard.”  
“I see.”, Bruce said softly.  
They all did. A heavy silence lay over them like a blanket, full of emotions, and not at all comfortable.  
“What about his magic?”  
Clint had asked this time, as soft as Bruce, thinly veiled interest in his eyes.  
Thor crumpled his forehead.  
“Tricks. He could fight as well without it.”  
“But he used it?”  
“Yes. For mischief, to cause trouble, in battle. We never really understood why.”  
They saw even more.  
Thor's blue eyes popped open in understanding.  
“He is a Jötunn. They have a natural bond with seiðr, it's...”  
Burying his head in his hands again, he laughed hollowly.  
“How we have wronged him.”  
His glass was filled again.  
“It's a part of him, we figured that out already. See that window? That was unconscious. Loki was sure we'd throw him out for insulting our honour and hospitality afterwards. Didn't trust us when we asked to see more, for science, for fun. Not very awesome, Point Break.”  
The God shook his head softly.  
“But then, when we had convinced him? Wow. He's fantastic. I'm still not entirely sure it's physically possible, but hey, that kid is a genius, and I trust his head. He had so much fun with it, it was as if he'd done a complete 180.”  
“We never took it seriously. A male mage is not very popular in Asgard.”  
“He told us, yes. All the more reason to encourage it. But, Thor – even if he wouldn't have been a Frost Giant born with magic, he would have deserved a chance at what he is good at. He's not much for fighting, either.”  
Chuckling darkly, Thor stared down into his glass and took a deep breath.  
“He was a highly effective fighter, different from many of us because of his slim, sinewy physique, but quick and strong nonetheless. But he never joined because he liked it, you are right. Mostly, I dragged him along. He was always more drawn to the library.”  
He then fixed Clint with an unreadable stare.  
“You taught him well, Hawk. Granted, his decision to master archery now makes more sense, after seeing him here. I remember. It has all happened so very long ago that I had forgotten.”  
A sigh.  
“Father was furious at him, at first. The Bow is a ritualistic weapon mostly, used to ignite funeral pyres and boats, warning fires. Wide-range weapons are more often than not known to be a cowards weapon. But he did not waver in his decision, and soon was better than any other archer we had. Even as he took to throwing knives, he never missed his mark.”, Thor said, unusually silent.  
“He'd speak of you for days on end. Loki was gone for two hours at the most, and we all believed he had dreamed the encounter. No one thought it had been real. Upon seeing him today I first thought that the Fates had mercy with him and granted him another chance, but he is too old for that. The battle against Malekith took place only weeks ago – he'd be but a babe. No, he has told the truth all these years ago. And I am worse for it that you were better friends to him, a better family than I ever was.”

 

Thor swore to himself to make up what he had done before.  
This was probably the last chance to spend time with his brother. With a brother that loved him still, that looked at him with adoration and kindness, a brother that he had failed to protect once before, and Thor would be damned if he would let this opportunity slip his grasp.  
This Loki still believed in him. This Loki still trusted him, and it hurt deeply to accept the fact that he had driven this innocent and curious boy from him with his self-obsessed ways, with his bigoted world-view.  
Had he just seen before how often Loki had saved his hide with magic. How often they had laughed at a magic trick. The well-planned strategies he had disregarded in favour of barging in like a bilgesnipe.  
And, most importantly – he had to purge the hatred from his mind. If he could possibly make this young Loki see that their tales were gruesome, festered with hatred, perhaps, just perhaps, the truth would not hurt as much as it had before.  
He'd try.  
Loki deserved at least this from his Brother.

 

“You've never before wanted me to show you.”  
“I changed my mind.”  
The scrutinizing gaze Loki gave his Brother, making him squirm, was enough to make Clint and Pepper giggle.  
“Is this some idea of Fandral to tease me again?”  
“Fandral doesn't know that we're here.”  
“Has Father asked you to see if I'd do it?”  
“By the Nine, Loki, just do me the favour! No one will come to punish you because you showed me that you can change the colour of a cloth.”  
“Just making sure.”, the kid shrugged, and, with a calculated look, turned the royal red into a bright, screaming pink that had the others laugh within milliseconds.  
“I asked for it.”, Thor sighed.  
Loki grinned.  
“Suits you well, Brother.”  
“What more? I know Mother is a skilled illusionist.”  
“Mother is far more experienced than I am, Thor.”  
“But...?”  
“Oh, for the love of the Norns.”, the kid muttered, accompanied with an eye-roll, and snapped his fingers.  
A cerulean orb appeared, hovering over the table. Bruce and Tony simultaneously leaned further in, squinting their eyes against the bright light, and then the image flickered.  
“That's not supposed to happen, isn't it?”, Natasha asked, a cup of tea against her lips. Loki shook his head.  
“Illusions are very tricky and need a lot of energy. Mages that are able to will perfect illusions into existence are very rare, and, in most cases, more powerful than you would want to cross paths with.”  
And with that, even Steve turned around to have a look at the orb. He raised a brow at Loki afterwards, his mouth turned into a soft frown.  
“Then what would you call a mage capable of making various copies of himself, all capable of independent movement?”  
The boy's eyes widened, as if what he'd heard was just shy of impossible.  
“Even Mother can only do one. Have you really seen someone do it?”  
Nodding, the Captain sat down.  
“He was the one to attack last year.”  
“And you defeated him? You must be even more powerful than I gave you credit for.”  
Boy, if he just knew.

 

Thor proceeded in his self-imposed task of praising his brother to the moon and back, and learn all he could from the boy. Loki had been wary of that sudden interest in everything remotely 'un-Thorish', but did as he was asked, becoming more self-assured of himself and his capabilities the more he wasn't ridiculed or mocked for his talents, but instead looked upon with wonder and love.  
The child still tried to pry from his brother's lips what exactly had happened in Asgard, or in the Future, but Thor remained silent, stoically so, and soon, it lost its appeal.  
It was much better to watch movies with him, or spar with him.  
“You'd be good with a staff, or spear, magpie.”, he would say, and Loki would turn red at the reminder that he had been fascinated, too fascinated, by everything shiny in his young life to this day.  
But then the honest words would make their way into his head, and he would consider them.  
He liked this Thor, even if his views on certain things was very strange.  
Giants, for example.  
The Thunderer had spent quite some time trying to convince Loki that every race had the right to live, and that Asgard had done wrong by the icy Giants.  
They'd had the biggest argument ever over this topic. Thor just wouldn't see the Jötunn for what they were – monsters that did not deserve anything, not when they had tried to overrun another planet and Asgard, and had done unimaginable cruel things.  
There had to be a reason they were told to fear them, to fear their wicked and cowardly attacks, their infant-stealing.  
Thor failed to see. He'd repeat over and over that these were just stories and that the winner wrote history (what in the Name of the Norns was that supposed to mean?), that he should try and not demonize them any further.  
“So it is true all the same.”, Loki had spat then. “The Brother I knew has grown up to be weak and foolish. My Thor would have never pleaded for them. Never. He'd have erased them all from the universe, would have purged the Realms from their stink. What would Father say could he hear you now, Thor? He would be sorely disappointed.”  
The Blonde's shoulders had sagged in defeat.  
“One day you will understand.”, he had whispered into the empty room, for the younger one had turned around and had slammed the door on his way out.  
“I just hope you will remember.”

 

“So the attempted world-conquering was just a very, very bad case of teenager-rebellion and a fat load of self-hatred?”, Clint of all people had wanted to know from their resident Thunderer some days after that, after he had to calm the boy down on the shooting range.  
“Perhaps. I... never inquired after the reasons. I believed my Brother to be still there, somewhere, until I returned with him. After that... I gave up on him. I shouldn't have. I should have told him of Mother. I should have been there for him. I should have protected him, not him me.”, Thor had answered.  
“He was alone, and lost, and fell into the hands of dangerous creatures that festered his hatred and his loathing for all of us.”  
“Why did he go to them in the first place? He had a lot of other places to choose from.”, Bruce said, and Thor closed his eyes in remembrance.  
“The Chitauri live in the corners of the universe not touched by Yggdrasil. When I had retained Mjölnir by offering my life for Jane's town, and I returned home, he was already entangled in a web of madness and pain, and I didn't see that he hurt. Hurt so much, in fact, that he chose Death over a Father who had lied to him and a Brother who had never seen him.”  
The words continued to come. He told his friends what had happened that fateful day Loki had let go, and the remarkably short grieving period that had followed.  
Honest to himself for what could be the first time in his life, Thor had to accept that the loss of his brother had not hurt that much the first time around.  
The second, though...  
“Hindsight is always 20/20.”, Steve said.  
“And I have forfeited the chance to be what he deserved.”, Thor intoned gravely. “He is too young now to listen and understand. Should I tell him he would never believe me and think me cruel for the rest of his life. I can't do that. He needs... deserves this one good memory of me to remember when he is back in his own time, to counter what we will do.”  
Taking a deep breath, he continued.  
“He will choose his magic over acceptance. He will master it and be the strongest sorcerer the Realms have ever seen. He will be ridiculed for it, will be mistrusted, and scorned, but he will not waver. Loki will lose what little innocence he still has with the decision to become a mage. He will never be recognized for his true worth, for his intelligence, his tactical cunning, or his power. He will forever be the Trickster, out of place in his own family, where he could have been happy here with you. But he must return, for he has done so once before.”  
It was the hardest thing Thor had ever to do. Harder than seeing Frigga die, harder than letting Loki go twice, never able to save him, and to know he'd condemn him to an unhappy life that would lead to his death with no-one left to believe in him made his heart clench and ache.  
“Help me make this Dream of his something he will remember as soothing and encouraging when he will face hatred and ignorance. Be the friends to him he never had.”  
Let him remember me at least once as the Brother I wanted to be.

 

“Please tell me you didn't know of the possible execution that awaited Loki when we sent you home.”  
The others carefully didn't react to the accusation, even if the curious glance the engineer got because they did not know what he was talking about were all but obvious.  
It wasn't that Tony didn't trust the God to do the right thing, but there was obviously something urging him to do the honourable thing, to please Odin or who-knows-whom, whatever the price.  
Thor looked up at him from his drink, took a sip and closed his eyes.  
“I had no other choice.”  
It made Tony reel back like slapped.  
“He was your brother!”  
“Then tell me what other option there was for him!”, Thor yelled back, eyes ablaze with unreadable emotions. “He knows the laws of Asgard better than anyone else, he had to, for he broke them all and talked his way out of most punishments. He knew exactly what would happen once he was defeated, and do not think for a moment he did not know it would come to it, Man of Iron. He was too clever to not know it.”  
“What're you talking about?”, Steve threw in, making Tony sigh and rub his face with a frown.  
“Loki Jr. told me that any threat to Earth is punished with Death, because we're protected apparently. Based on the fact that the eight year old told me that, I figured the older one knew that, too. That in turn makes me question that whole invasion schtick. Why come here, where he would be found whatever the case? What in hell did that brilliant tactician think when he opened a bottleneck portal of all the things? Why did he not vanish once he was left alone? He barely had a scratch half an hour after the meet&greet with the Big Green, what had him stay and wait for us to get him? You all saw what he is in fact capable of in regards of that magic of his. So, final question. With all that might, why did he need that sceptre, and how on Earth did we actually manage to capture him?”  
He got no answers.

 

They had another week.  
A week full of laughter, full of love, of praise, of friends and family. It broke all of their hearts to see Loki so carefree and happy, so content, knowing he would be let down again.  
Satisfaction is not in my nature.  
Thor wanted to slap himself, his younger, and stupid self, for erasing that from his brother. They had made Loki that damaged creature he had seen himself as.  
In the evenings, they would sit together and watch TV, and Loki would cuddle into Thor, searching for warmth and love, and Thor would give that and more in his embraces.  
“Trust in yourself, little brother. You are so gifted, and so talented. Do not waste these skills, nourish them and let them grow. Never let anyone tell you different. You will do great things, you will be so much more than anyone could believe.”, he said, as earnest as he could, and Loki nodded solemnly, trying to make sense of the words.  
“When Asgard tries to tear you down, stand proud and do what you want. It is your life, not theirs. Prove them all wrong. You are worth a hundred Thor's.”  
Wanting to protest, Loki opened his mouth, but was shushed.  
“Just stay true to yourself.”  
When Bruce suggested to Loki that he should try the teleportation spell once again, that the magic would perhaps be able to bring him back, no one thought it would happen exactly like that.  
There were no good-byes. No final hugs, no parting words.  
Loki was just gone.  
And it hurt.

 

“So that's it, huh?”, Clint said, after five minutes of complete silence had gone by.  
“Drat.”  
Thor looked ready to cry again, but turned and left before he actually started to.  
They left him to it. Losing Loki for the third time had to be hard, especially after all that he had seen now, the other perspective, the other side.  
Hell, even they felt like something had gone missing so suddenly and unexpected that it hurt, a dull ache that made it hard to breathe.  
When Loki would meet them again, they would be enemies. Set on destroying each other.  
“D'you think we had some impact on him?”  
“Yes.”, said Pepper, and Clint blinked at her.  
“He will decide to do what he loves. What defines him. He wouldn't have done that would he still believe in these old-fashioned notions.”  
“He will try to invade Earth.”, Bruce said softly.  
“Not to say that he had his reasons, but hurt like that and having an identity crisis really explains a bit of it.”, Tony answered. “And we did mow them down good. He didn't have a chance.”  
“Or he didn't want to have one.”, Steve returned, almost a whisper. “He knew us, should have known that we would defeat him, and he still did it. He ran into this and had to see that it was him we have talked about before.”  
More silence. They tried to busy themselves, but neither the gym, nor the shooting range were luring them in, even the lab seemed colder and emptier than ever.  
They met again in the evening, over drinks, sullen and drowned in their emotions.  
“He's dead.”, Tony finally breathed. “We'll never see him again, and we didn't even say good-bye. The last memories from us he has are cold stares and hurtful words when we sent him back.”  
“He would have known why.”, a voice from the door said, and Thor walked in, looking worse for the wear.  
They had lost a friend. Heavens, it hurt.  
“Apologies, Sir, but there is a video file that is acting unusually.”  
“Play it, Jarvis. Whatever.”  
The engineer, as well as Clint and Steve, spat out the mouthful of alcohol they had just taken as soon as it did.  
“Hi.”, the speakers relayed, and, from the big screen mounted over the mantle, Loki grinned at them.  
The older Loki, fresh with bruises and lacerations Hulk had smashed into him. He appeared to be in the holding cell they had found for him after shackling the God, and the tape was paused with a frantic word from Tony.  
“What the fucking hell, Jarvis?”  
“I apologize. Master Loki recorded the file on May 4th, 2013, after his failed attack. He apparently put some code in action that hid the file from me and activated itself some time after young Master Loki was gone again.”  
All of them swallowed heavily, a lump in the throat that threatened to suffocate them.  
“Play it.”, Tony ordered, voice hoarse.  
Loki started moving again.  
“I guess my little time-travelling self has gone back home by now, or else you wouldn't see this.”, he said, leaning back against the white wall, and closing his eyes with a little smile.  
“I have not much time, but so much to say. Let me start by thanking you for all you have done for me while I was lost on your planet all these years ago. I'd say I have never forgotten, but that would probably be a lie. A very long time has passed since I last saw you, and time tends to twist even the most cherished memories. The memories faded, and thinned, until I believed them to be no more than imaginary, a dream I invented to seek refuge from Asgard. That you have taken me in despite what I did to you the year before, that you even became my friends – a greater kindness I have never experienced in my life.”  
“What is this?”, Pepper whispered, too shocked to speak louder, pale as a ghost and gripping Tony's arm tightly.  
“I am sorry for the destruction and death I have caused to your planet, to your City, but I saw no other way once the plan had been made. There is a threat coming to you that exceeds even my level of dangerous, and I have been told I am pretty dangerous.”, Loki continued.  
“Is he confessing to saving us from something?”, Natasha wanted to know, but got no answer. All eyes were trained and fixed to the screen, where the God still leaned back, eyes now open, the colour a sickly greenish-blue shade that they hadn't seen before.  
“There... have been things...”, he sighed. “There were informations withheld from me, important informations, and that, coupled with some other things, have led to me leaving Asgard rather permanently, or that was the plan once. I shouldn't be alive any more, but I am, and the reason for that is a force so powerful that not even I could withstand it. I cannot speak his name, for names have might, and I can't draw his attention to me right now. His hold is weak, and I need to warn you.”  
Even Thor held his breath as they waited for Loki to reveal what that should be.  
“The Chitauri are but insects to the true force behind them. They were the army I was promised in exchange for the Tesseract, to wage war upon Midgard, war I craved and wanted, to hurt these who had hurt me.  
Infinity Stones, they are called. Sources of power that will, when united, destroy everything. And I mean everything. Solar systems, Galaxies, the whole universe will be eradicated should he get his hands on all of them.”  
Thor yelled for Jarvis to pause the file. He was pale, paler than they had ever seen him before, and his hands shook around Mjölnir.  
“He knew of them.”, he said, eyes wild and filled with pain. “The artefact Jane stumbled upon is called Aether. It is such an Infinity Stone, another, besides the Tesseract.”  
“We played host to a thing that could destroy the universe?”, Bruce asked, decidedly calm.  
“From what I could gather, they take full effect only if they are brought together, and merged with a Gauntlet that is able to channel said power. There are six, each cursed with different properties...”  
He sighed tiredly.  
“Could we... discuss this later?”  
“'Course. Jay, play.”  
“My pleasure, Sir.”

They started the video once again.  
Loki hesitated, breath taken, but unsure how to say what he wanted to say.  
“I... wanted to believe in you. Wanted to believe you were real, and not just a dream, an illusion tricking me into becoming something I knew would not be favoured. I returned, and in my excitement of course told my pa... the Allfather, and his Queen, what had happened. They did not believe a word, whatever I said. They dismissed you for a mad dream that should not rule my mind.”  
There was a sharp pain in his eyes, layered with hatred and contempt, that made the watching crowd ache deep down.  
“I told Thor. My Thor. Gods, how he laughed.”, Loki spit out. “I will never forget what you told me then, brother, and you hopefully won't as well.”  
The Thunderer lowered his head in shame. No one dared to ask what he had actually said.  
“It was so very easy to forget you again, to think you a hopeless dream of what I could have had. In truth, even I knew, deep down, that it had been too good. People who liked me for the curse of magic instead of pitying me? Putting up with me for more than me being a Prince? I knew then that I had tried to fool myself.”  
“Stop.”, Natasha and Pepper pleaded in the same moment.  
Loki froze on the screen.  
“I can't do this sober.”, the CEO said, doing herself the favour and getting more to drink, hands still shaking.  
They all followed suit. Pepper handed out the bottles, carefully, mostly, until she had to serve Thor. Her lips settled in a deathly frown, and she more or less slammed a glass in front of him and the scotch to its side before grabbing her own glass and storming off.  
He'd done this to Loki. The kid who'd cried on her shoulder, and who had carved a place in her heart that was now empty and that hurt so much she couldn't breathe.  
Seeing the adult one so broken, so defeated, was perhaps more she could handle.  
Before long, Tony settled next to her, and wrapped their hands together, and she clung to him too tight to be comfortable, but he just kissed her fingers and said not a single word.  
Was this how parents felt when they lost a child?  
She never wanted kids.  
“Go on, Jarvis.”  
“There have been memories, now and then, that I remembered. When I needed comfort, and kindness. Love, perhaps. Understanding. It helped, somewhat, even if I could never have it. It was my very own refuge from the harshness that is Asgard. Thank you for that. Having this kept me sane for a very long time.”  
Blinking once, Loki sat up a bit straighter, and his soft smile turned into a sombre expression.  
“When I fell into Yggdrasil, my mind was shattered, and broken. I had just lost everything that made myself true, my whole life had been turned into a lie, and the man I used to call Father rejected my every action. I fell, sure that Death would be kinder to me than a life between these people. Instead, though, I was fished out of the maelstrom of darkness and nothingness, landed between the forces of the Chitauri, and have been... let's call it persuaded... to return the Tesseract to him in exchange for what I believed my birthright, a throne, and a Realm to rule.”  
A soft chuckle fell from his thin lips, as if what he just had said was a jest so delicate it would break if not told carefully enough.  
“What had I to lose? There was nothing holding me back. Anger and hatred took the decision from me, and soon enough we were ready to manipulate the Tesseract from beyond the Worlds. I hadn't noticed the hold he had over me then. My mind was stuffed with emotions, a negative miasma of thoughts that had me so occupied that I didn't recognize what he had done. I opened the portal, ready to storm in and claim your planet, and then I came across Clint. Seeing him jerked my consciousness back to the forefront of my mind, made me aware of what I was about to do, and put everything in perspective.”  
The archer swallowed audibly around a mouthful of something strong.  
“While being with you, I swore to myself to find out why you were so strong in your hatred against me, what I had done to you that you were on your guard for weeks around me. And then I saw you and knew, and couldn't change it, even if I had wanted to. I needed you, though, because suddenly, everything made sense.”  
Loki's eyes glinted with something neither of them could identify.  
“I had been so blind not to see it. You had defeated me. I knew it, a millennium ago, I cried the confession into Pepper's embrace, and she lied to me and told me it hadn't been me. By the Gods, you were right, Pep. But I couldn't escape – not anymore.”  
His fingers were idly playing with each other, a habit they had seen on him even when he had been eight and young and a child.  
“I knew you had secrets when I fell into your lives, but they became clear as I saw Clint. Whatever I would do, it would lead to your victory over me, over the Chitauri, over him, and with the little sane part controlling me right then I decided to sabotage it all and pursue the only way I know to get him out again.”  
While Loki took a deep breath, both Clint and Natasha murmured something about 'recalibration'.  
“I am so sorry, Clint, for what I did to you.”, the God then said, and his eyes had lost all blue tinge in that moment. “I promise you that I am out of your head forever, and completely. I really didn't deserve the lessons, but I am grateful you gave them nonetheless. You were the factor that swayed this whole charade to your favour. You made the weeks I spent with you real again, and I just couldn't let him win and destroy you. Not you. Never a single one of you.”  
For the first time in her life, Natasha felt as if her heart would burst.  
Loki had loved them so much.  
“Me, on the other hand... I cannot win against him. I was touched too intimately by the Mind Stone to break away from his hold like you did. Even now I feel him in the corners of my mind, filling every crack and tear that originated while I fell through Yggdrasil. The Hulk has fought him back, but this is a temporary freedom at best. Just enough to record this.  
The sceptre holds said Mind Stone. Do not attempt to destroy it. Bury it, drown it, send it off, but stay away from it. It is dangerous, and not to be tampered with.”  
“Pause.”, Steve ordered.  
The images froze.  
“Before I lose all respect for you or your people, Thor, please tell me you thought to check if Loki was in fact controlled as he controlled Clint and Selvig.”  
The short silence was almost too much.  
“I wouldn't know. I was not present when the Allfather declared his sentence.”  
“Did you at least speak of it?”  
“I... nay.”  
Who controls the would-be-king?  
He hadn't. But he should have.

“Now listen well, Avengers. Whatever I do, I am not to be trusted. The ultimate goal is to get the Infinity Gauntlet, and that one resides in Asgard. While I had no qualms about him destroying the universe before, since I came to understand that you are, in fact, real, and will somehow stir my younger self to accept himself, I cannot allow him to do that. I couldn't change the plans too much, but effectively enough. Originally, I should have held reigns over Midgard, while he would destroy Asgard, and oh, he would have. Now, though, I will be returned to the Realm Eternal, and he thinks I could somehow usurp the throne. Perhaps I could. He made sure I am his to do his bidding as long as he exists, for the rest of my life, but he has not taken into account that what I am facing now will be no mere slap on the wrist. You know that. I told Tony.”  
A small, but wicked grin spread over Loki's features.  
“He does not know I will be dead in a few hours, if Odin Allfather heeds his own rules. Even he cannot control the Dead. His plan will fail. Without me, he has no one in Asgard to get him the Gauntlet.”, he said, almost gleeful. But his grin fell away as soon as it had come.  
“In the highly unlikely case of Odin sparing me, thus proving his senility, I ask of you to do what he won't do and kill me should you lay eyes on me once more. I cannot break free of his hold, as I said – he has made a home within my mind, in all the broken fragments of my head that I can't possibly hope to mend again, and it makes it impossible for me to get him out again. I can't say what will remain of me once he takes over again. I may show a little self-control, but not nearly enough to withstand his orders.”  
And while the Avengers and Pepper sat still to process the words and the plea, Loki shuffled on his place, shackles clinking when he laid his hands down on his knees.  
“The chances of us meeting again are slim, and as much as it hurts, I hope we will never cross paths again, for you would stand in my way, and I would have to kill you. He will strengthen the bond, and I will lose every restraint, every sympathy I ever harboured towards you. Should we see each other again, though, you must do your best to take me out permanently. Letting me live, allowing me to live will lunge the universe into Chaos, into destruction, and I absolutely abhor these unless I have full control of them. Only Death will purge him from my mind, and it's not as if I haven't chosen death over life more often than not this last year.”  
Loki took some moments to think about his next words.  
Tony and Pepper clang together like they were the only thing anchoring them in the present. Bruce and Steve were overcome by a grief that permeated the air, and Nat tried to console Clint who had buried his face in his hands.  
Thor had long given up holding back his tears.  
“I don't know what will happen. I can only hope. The way Thor greeted the eight year old me when he finally arrived makes me hope that all will be well. He looked as if I had returned from the dead, and perhaps it is the truth. But don't make the mistake to think this changes anything, Thor. The boy you have tried to play the good brother for does not exist any more. He is gone for so long that even I cannot remember him. The Loki you want me to be will forever remain a dream. I am not your brother, if I ever was, and I don't want to belong to any of your kin after all that happened. There is no place for me, neither on Asgard nor Midgard. I am a creature without claim to anything, who doesn't belong to anyone or anything, and who has lost everything.”  
Loki blinked a few times, leaning his head back against the wall with a sigh and a hurt grin.  
“I tried so hard to fit in. And when I figured out it wouldn't go like that, I tried to give truth to the Dream I had lived with you. To be proud of what I am, what I am capable of, to do whatever I want. I watched Thor so intently, always waiting for the moment when he would finally change into the man I had come to know while stuck on Midgard, but it never happened. There is a glimpse of that man, yes, but you have still a way to go, Thor. Nonetheless... the one who looks at this right now will be a fair and good king one day. Of that Man I could be proud again, even if it came only from my broken, twisted heart.”  
“These...”, Thor suddenly rasped, voice throaty and rough, and Jarvis paused the file without prompt.  
“These words... Father said them to me. Almost these exact words.”  
All of the others raised their brows. Could this be coincidence?  
“When?”, Natasha dared to ask.  
“When I asked to be given freedom of the throne, and the kingship. When he let me go. After... after we defeated Malekith and had averted Darkness and a reign under the Dark Elves.”  
The Blonde swallowed heavily, rubbing his face once before looking at the screen again.  
“Go on. I will see what he has said.”  
Loki's face softened.  
“I love you, Thor, and I will do for as long as I live, somewhere in my heart, but we are too broken to mend. I am filled with hatred and anger, sentiments I project on everyone from my past, and my future. I remember the good days, but they are tainted, and I can't live like this any longer. Whatever I once was has died with Odin's words. Do not search for that part of me again, it is an endeavour that promises only pain.”, he said softly, considerate almost. Then he laughed shortly.  
“This all must seem like I am just misguided and under control. I assure you, it is not. I came to Midgard willingly, mostly. I am not a good person. I lie, I trick, I steal, I betray. I am selfish, and I crave destruction. I am Chaos incarnate, I spread mayhem for fun. That is my nature. A part of me enjoyed this madness I put you through. The power, the fear, the screams. Being evil is oddly freeing.”  
“Well that is somehow understandable.”, Bruce remarked drily, getting exactly what Loki felt like.  
“Another part resents me for these feelings. That is your doing, Avengers, and I have to thank you for the effort. You tried your best in changing me for the better, and even though it didn't stick, in the end, being treated like a normal child for once was the best thing that has ever happened to me. I am sorry that I almost repaid that kindness with death.”  
The mage then pressed his eyes closed, and his right hand to his temple. Pain flitted over his face, and a soft groan wrung itself out of a pale throat.  
“One last thing. If Odin really should spare me, and the need arises for you to end me, remember the following. I am a Frost Giant, and a mage. My body is able to withstand a lot. More than most Aesir could survive. I was barely scratched by Hulk, as you see, even if the initial pain was well met and deserved. There are but two things that will be efficient enough for that task. One is good old fashioned decapitation, which should await me in Asgard. The other is, quite ironically, fire. I cannot stand the heat, as a Frost Giant. Fire will bring me down rather fast.”  
Eyes going wide, the Avengers listened. Could it be...?  
“Stab my heart, and I will live. Break my bones – I will walk away mere moments later.”, Loki said, and a broken, rough laugh escaped his throat that pained them all. “Throw me into Yggdrasil herself, what should be sure death, and I will go mad, I will lose myself, I will break, but I will live. Remember this. As long as my body is whole, there is a good chance I will survive. Play Possum, so to speak, and thank you, Tony, for teaching me this proverb. I quite enjoyed it.”  
It tore a bark of laughter out of the engineer.  
“Farewell. I wish you all the best.”  
The screen went dark.  
For a few seconds, everything was silent. They even had stopped breathing, it seemed. Then Thor abruptly rose from his seat, a determined expression on his face.  
“If this is true, Loki has made me a fool once again and laughs about my idiocy right now.”, he grumbled.  
The sound lacked any real anger, though, and was more a sound of utter hope instead of rage.  
“What do you mean?”, Tony asked, already having a good idea.  
“I told you. Algrim stabbed him. If he has spoken truth in that film just now, it would not kill him, and he just has played that he was dying.”  
“And paired with the bit about being proud of you...”, Clint added, “he may have given you some sort of hint.”  
“Does that mean he's Odin right now?”, Natasha wanted to know. “I mean, if it was your Father?”  
Thor shrugged. “Who knows. His illusions are hard to see through. If he poses as Father now, though, then I need to know what has happened to the real one, and we need to stop whomever is waiting for Loki to get to the Gauntlet.”  
“Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get moving.”, Tony said, and the despair that had sat in their bones for the last few hours dissipated and left room for growing hope that they perhaps could do something more than just kill their lost friend.  
“We'll tackle SHIELD with this, and you try to find out if he's really having a good time as King of Asgard right now.”  
Nodding, all of them scattered into action.  
They were prepared to do anything in their might.  
There was a friend in need.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still firmly believing the Attack on Earth was a way for Loki to get back to Asgard. Nothing more.  
> Seeing Guardians only deepened this. Baaad Thanos. Bad.
> 
> Well, I hope you liked it. If the Muses strike I'll perhaps get another story out of this.  
> How did you like it? What was good, what could have been better? Is my poor Loki truly evil?  
> Tell me everything :D
> 
> Thank you for staying with me and for reading this. If you like FrostIron, perhaps my other stories could draw you in... *subtle commercials*

**Author's Note:**

> I won't draw this out. 23k words, and I'll post them soonish. No more than three chapters, because that's the most I want to split.
> 
> Tell me what you think. Is it good? How's the Canon? What will happen now with the Avengers? Give me feedback, because this thing is a big leap from the usual for me.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed, and thanks for reading!


End file.
